Entrepreneurial Benefits of Failure

It is important that entrepreneurs learn to see the benefits of failure and learn to identify the lessons that can be learnt from it.

Further, it is important that we learn to be resilient: it is easy to be disheartened by a defeat and to become convinced that the idea is not worth pursuing. But no experience should be disregarded, no matter how unsuccessful the outcome.

Failure, in one form or another, is inevitable for everyone, but particularly entrepreneurs. The first thing to do when facing disappointment is to take account of the facts – don’t ignore what’s happened or try to put a too-positive spin on it. Be honest about what’s gone wrong so that you can you accurately identify the lessons and take action.

For entrepreneurs, not knowing whether or not something would have worked can be worse than failure. Thomas Edison is claimed to have said of inventing the lightbulb,
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Whether or not Edison actually said this doesn’t really matter. The point is that someone did and they were right: when an attempt fails, we do not have the result we were looking for but … Read the rest

Be a Productive Employee or Entrepreneur

Follow 80-20 rule.

20% of the work produces 80% of the result. That is the sole pretext on which the rule works. When it comes to employees who hold designations like that of managers, it helps them allocate resources depending upon the importance of a task. Entrepreneur on the other hand, must understand that if he or she is operates in the buying and selling space, then bulk purchases will always provide more revenue than individual sales. Thus, focusing on those bulk buyers will produce better results for his business.

Both employees and entrepreneurs must concentrate their energy on restricted and dedicated activities which can then boost productivity and yield better results.

Have a healthy routine

If you look at some of the top entrepreneurs of the world, all of them have a certain healthy habit which keeps their minds and bodies from giving up and becoming unproductive. Padamsree Warrior, Chief Technical and Strategy Office, Cisco Systems meditates every night and spends her Saturday’s doing a “Digital Detox”.

Healthy routine does not only involve eating healthy but also disconnecting from one’s gadget filled work life. Spending time relaxing your brain is important. Its recovery is vital unless you wish to … Read the rest

Setting Up Business Space

Next you need certain tools to conduct your business. You will need a form of communication with your clients or prospects. That may include business cards, letterhead, or stationary, e-mails, phone, and or faxing capability, website and sales copy. You determine your communication methods but all the methods should be professional.

You also need to tag or file your possible prospects, your committed clients, your vendors, and any correspondence and to whom. It is a good idea to keep track of what you are selling, the prices that you have established and any discounts that you offered. Also keep track of whether it is your product of someone else’s. You might consider investing in a good tracking software.

Another thing to set up is any policies that you will implement. Knowing your return policy upfront for an example will help you deal with a future return. Your shipping policy is another area that could get you in a bind. Will you ship locally, nationally or internationally? Who will take care of shipping the product? What will you do if the item is damaged?

If you are in a service industry who will provide the service in your absence or do … Read the rest

Home Based Business

Build the blueprint for your business and try to think about what you have to do every day to achieve that success. You need to focus and set priorities and then go for it.

Whether you are just getting started on your journey on the road to success or you have been on the journey for some time, one thing is for certain, you will greatly enhance the speed in which you reach your goals when you embrace these Dailyhawker Canada key success principles:

  • Change your mind-set. Don’t focus on the money. If you chase money, you will always be broke. Don’t allow money to have that power over you.
  • Focus on developing your talents to provide value and abundance for others, then the money will show up.
  • If you want success, you have to be willing to pay the price of diligence and hard work. You already know all you need to know to be successful, you just need to put the remote control down, scoop the bag of chips away, and get off the couch.
  • The most important ingredient of success is good mentoring. If you want something in your life, then line up with somebody who is
Read the rest

Financial Yardsticks for Small Business

Your Assets

Tracking your equipment, furniture, real estate and other holdings should be easy. But to have a true idea of the value of your business, you also have to track changes in the value of those assets. More than one small business has found itself located on a piece of land that’s worth more than the business itself. Similarly, you also will want to track the declining value of assets such as computers and office furniture.

Your Liabilities

On the face of it, this is easy — liabilities are what you owe. But what you owe isn’t always as obvious as a bill from your landlord. Payroll taxes are a liability that depend on the size of your payroll. Loans are a clear liability, but in repaying them you’ll want to be able to track how much of a payment is applied against principal and interest.

What does it Cost You to Produce What You Sell?

If you’re buying a finished item for resale, this is relatively easy. It’s trickier if you have to calculate all the factors, such as labour, that go into manufacturing a product. .

What’s it Costing You to Sell What You Sell?

Advertising, marketing, … Read the rest

Business Consultancy

Definitions of Consultancy on the Web:

  • A contract to provide services which meet all the following criteria: expert analysis and advice which facilitates decision making of a specific task or a set of tasks involving skills or perspectives which would not normally be expected to reside within the Department making the decision.
  • The practice of giving expert advice within a particular field or area.
  • The practice of helping companies to improve performance through analysis of existing business problems and development of future plans.

To shed some more light on this subject let’s turn to the World Wide Web. If you do a search on Google for business consultancy, here are some of the top businesses that show up on the first page of results:

  • IBM
  • Accenture
  • Deloitte

These are some of the biggest and most reputable consultancy companies in existence today. Small businesses would probably be more suited to a smaller consultancy firm.

A more recent offset of business consultancy is something called Business coaching. Business coaching is a fairly new profession that has started to gain popularity in the business sector. Its origins appear to be from the sporting arena where coaches have helped athletes achieve their goals for … Read the rest

Business Elite

What are the standards of the business elite? In order to be the best you have to make sure you are in position to be the best. There are many different criteria’s of elite status such as revenue, industry leader, milestones, awards and etc. When you are elite it has nothing to do with anything, but work ethic. Researchers may argue that zodiac has a lot to with success. When you are born make sure you understand homework and application is what defines success.

The elite can be a tough job. Elite status comes with a lot of criticism. When you make it the top people won’t give you praise you or have your best interest. When you pay employees your employees sometimes can become your worst enemies. Anyone with inside information can destroy a company since they know when a company is making moves. When your an elite leader you can become the best by doing things the right way. The business elite have one goal in mind which is to be the best.

Building a business can be a tough trick there is no way to sustain success. Most people when they get to the top feel they … Read the rest

Pillars of a Successful Business Partnership

Trust

Before there can be anything meaningful and lasting in a relationship, there must be a mutual level of trust. Trust, however, takes time to develop.

I have known David Begin, my current partner in various ventures, since 1991. We met when we both worked for a large software company, and have remained friends over the years. Our families have travelled together, and we have developed a close bond over time. When the opportunity first arose for us to partner on a business, we had already developed a deep trust at a personal level. This trust has been the basis of our business relationship. We rely on the fact, as good partners must, that we have each other’s interests in mind – we have each other’s backs in any situation. We try to consider what’s best for the other person, and what’s makes most sense for the business overall.

If you have the advantage of considering a partnership with someone with whom you have a long-term relationship, then trust should already be established. But what if you have recently met the person you are considering going into business with? How do you develop trust in a short period of time?… Read the rest

Business Partnerships

One life lesson I learned long ago is that until you know how someone is about money, you really don’t know how that person is. Money has the ability to reflect the best and worst in people. We all know it but somehow when it comes to partnerships of all kinds we all too often play people pleasers numbed by the novocaine of looking bad.

There are 3 types of potential partners one takes on in business. They are as follows.

  • Friend
  • Family Member
  • Business Associate that has become a friend of sorts.

The most common reason one brings a business partner aboard is the worst reason to do so. The most common reason is to “share the fear”. As a business coach I have found this to be the case nearly every time someone wanted to bring on a partner. Whether they knew it or not, they wanted what I call “a liability sponge”. The logical follow is that once the fear has worn thin, the partners begin to compare who is doing more or less than the other, who is taking more time off, who comes in late and the list goes on. The partnership begins to look … Read the rest

Psychology of Success

Your success quotient is made up of skills, knowledge and attitude with attitude accounting for 85%. Carol S. Dweck’s book, Mindset The New Psychology for Success, supports how important attitude is, but adds an additional premise that you have to be open to learning rather than closed to learning. According to Dweck, the world is divided between people who do and don’t have an open mindset. Those who do have an open mindset succeed, often outperform and lead happier lives as compared to those with exceptional skills and knowledge but who have a closed mindset.

Strong differences in people’s backgrounds, experiences, education and training have all been used as a way to explain why some of us achieve success and many of us fall short. According to Dweck, mindsets frame the running account taking place in people’s heads. They guide how you interpret things. The fixed mindset tends to judge failure as a loss and re-enforces its view of failure with internal monologues such as: “this means I am a loser,” or “this means I am not as good as they are.” It also tends to support shutting down, not trying again or giving up. Growth mindset people on the … Read the rest