Categories
Starting Up

Entrepreneur’s Checklist

checklist.jpgAllBusiness.com: Owning a business is the dream of many Americans… starting that business converts your dreams into reality. However, there is a gap between dreams and reality. Your dreams can only be achieved with careful planning. As an entrepreneur, you will need a plan to avoid pitfalls, to achieve your goals, and to build a profitable business.
This checklist is designed to help you get started. It has seven key components:
1. Identify Your Reasons
2. Self Analysis
3. Personal Skills and Experience
4. Finding a Niche
5. Market Analysis
6. Planning Your Startup; and
7. Finances
Each component is comprehensive and is designed to prepare you for self employment. In addition, each component includes an analysis of you responses as well as a menu of supporting resources.
Checklist for Starting a Business [AllBusiness.com]

Categories
People & Relationships

8 Tips For Project Managers

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Rajesh Shakya: There are numerous ways to fail as a project manager. Many Project Managers just live with their job as project manager and don’t actually manage the projects. Many Project Managers simply don’t get time to get updated with latest technology tools and best practices. Let’s take a look at some of the ways in particular that project managers can succeed.
Use project management tools effectively– Just to name a few for enterprise project management to personal project management- Microsoft Project, QualBridge Enterprise.
Manage your time well– Speaking of time, first of all you personally should be organized and achieve the desired outcome on time and on budget, then your project team will follow you.
Conduct meetings effectively– Meetings are necessary in completing projects – project planning meeting, stakeholder meetings, project team meeting, weekly briefing, daily scrum and so on.
Maintain a sense of humor– Activities in a project may go wrong. But you have to maintain a sense of humor so that you don’t do damage to your health, to your team, to your organization, and to the project itself.
Give and receive criticism– Learning the emotions of each of the team members is very important. Similarly, the ability to receive criticism is crucial for project managers.
Improve decision-making skills– You should be quick to give decisions and the decisions should be right, because your team members look to you for some approvals, choices from many options and prioritize activities.
Be adaptive– Accept any good suggestions if adaptable with project time, budget and resources.
Trust yourself– Trusting yourself and also team members is a vital component to effective project management.
Success Tips to Project Managers [Rajesh Shakya]

Categories
Entrepreneurship

Diving Under

diving-under.jpgEntrepreneur: I was living out my dream of running a scuba diving business in Tonga when I realized that many of the lessons I’d learned about diving also applied to entrepreneurship. In previous parts of this series, I’ve talked about packing up my life in a 20×20 container, narrowly escaping jail and finding my boat partially submerged in the harbor. Before starting to build my actual shop, I’d already learned quite a bit about being a business owner.
Even if you’ve never been diving, as an entrepreneur, you’ll be able to relate to these lessons. After all, we’re all fish in the same ocean.
1. Never stop breathing.
This is key in scuba diving. I was well versed in the concept and was very comfortable underwater. What I didn’t realize is just how important the concept is out of the water when it comes to running a business. When many of us become stressed, we stop breathing correctly, which can interfere with how we handle stress and how we run our business.
2. Swim with the current.
In scuba diving, if you swim with the current, the entire dive is easy, relaxing and totally enjoyable. So many times as an entrepreneur, I felt like a salmon swimming upstream. I was so focused on running my business my way that I wasn’t open to going with the flow. Sometimes going with the flow would have made things much easier.
3. Prepare your exit strategy.
The term “drift diving” refers to when the boat drops you off at one end of the reef and you scuba dive to the other end – where the boat is waiting for you – by going with the current. In order for this to be a successful and relaxing dive for the dive master, he or she must coordinate with the boat captain ahead of time to be waiting at the end.
When you started, did you take the end into consideration? If you didn’t, the good news is that it’s not too late to start planning. What your boat looks like will depend on your industry, the market, supply and demand, your partners and a number of other factors. Maybe you know you want to end or sell your business in one, three or five years. Along the course, there will be navigational points that will help you better determine if your boat is on schedule.
Beneath the Surface [Entrepreneur]

Categories
Entrepreneurship

Serial-preneurs


WSJ.com: Call them serial-preneurs. While some entrepreneurs struggle their whole lives to bring one idea or product to market, there’s another breed: those who do it once, twice or three times more, disproving the notion of beginner’s luck. In some cases, the brands and people are household names, such as Steve Jobs with Apple, Pixar and NeXT. But the ranks also are populated with lesser-known entrepreneurs who fly under the radar, hitting one start-up home run after the other.
“I really believe that some people are kind of entrepreneurial adrenaline freaks,” says Wayne Stewart, a management professor at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C. “They really get their kicks by starting businesses.”
In 2000, Mr. Stewart published a study with two other researchers looking for common traits among serial entrepreneurs — which he defined as those who had owned and operated three or more businesses. Of the 664 entrepreneurs studied, only 12% fit the bill. But those who did scored higher in all three categories examined: They had a higher propensity for risk, innovation and achievement. They were less scared of failure. And they were more able to recover when they did fail.
The Secrets of Serial Success [WSJ.com]

Categories
Entrepreneurs

What Drives You

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Entrepreneur: It’s fascinating to hear other people’s success stories. One of the most interesting parts is learning how successful entrepreneurs got their start and how they overcame challenges and adversity. Did an idea flash in their minds like a lightning bolt? Or was it something that percolated over the years? How did timing play into their launch? Did experience or desperation drive their plan forward?
When I researched my new book, Secrets of Millionaire Moms, I asked 17 highly successful business owners for the personal inspiration and catalyst that moved them to take action. For each woman, it was different. Some were motivated by years of experience and the seed money that enabled it to happen; others launched out of a financial or emotional need.
The common ground all these entrepreneurs shared was financial success and the gratification of creating something larger than themselves. Here are a few excerpts of their experiences:
Rachel Ashwell, founder of Shabby Chic
Ashwell left school at age 16. She separated from her husband in her mid-twenties–with two babies under the age of 2 to support. These circumstances drove Ashwell to take a chance and start a retail business–Shabby Chic. With her babies by her side, she scouted flea markets for items she could refinish. Her pieces became an instant hit in her California store. The rest is history. Her company has since expanded to include a national line of slipcover furniture, bedding, home accessories, a TV series, design books and a line of home furnishings called Simply Shabby Chic sold exclusively through Target stores.
What Inspires People to Startup? [Entrepreneur]