Archive for the ‘General Thoughts’ Category
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 | Written by Jim Beach
Posted under: Business Ownership, General Thoughts, Risk |
Tags: entrepreneur test, should you be an entrepreneur |
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Daniel Isenberg, an entrepreneurship professor at Babson College, developed a Entrepreneur Test, to help you find out if you should be an entrepreneur. Answer yes or no, with honesty……
- I don’t like being told what to do by people who are less capable than I am.
- I like challenging myself.
- I like to win.
- I like being my own boss.
- I always look for new and better ways to do things.
- I like to question conventional wisdom.
- I like to get people together in order to get things done.
- People get excited by my ideas.
- I am rarely satisfied or complacent.
- I can’t sit still.
- I can usually work my way out of a difficult situation.
- I would rather fail at my own thing than succeed at someone else’s.
- Whenever there is a problem, I am ready to jump right in.
- I think old dogs can learn — even invent — new tricks.
- Members of my family run their own businesses.
- I have friends who run their own businesses.
- I worked after school and during vacations when I was growing up.
- I get an adrenaline rush from selling things.
- I am exhilarated by achieving results.
- I could have written a better test than Isenberg (and here is what I would change ….)
If you answered “yes” on 17 or more of these questions, you definitely should consider the change. 13 to 16 “yes” votes and you are close, but proceed with caution!
Notice what questions are not on the list: ”I like to take risks” and “I want to get rich” are not on the list. You don’t choose to be entrepreneurs by opting for a riskier lifestyle. Nor do you get rich by starting a business. You may, but its not guaranteed!
Tags: entrepreneur test, should you be an entrepreneur | Posted under Business Ownership, General Thoughts, Risk | No Comments
Saturday, February 20, 2010 | Written by Kristin Diver
Posted under: Entrepreneurship Stories, General Thoughts |
Tags: small business questions |
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I recently started working with a soon-to-be small business a couple weeks after they signed a lease for their perfect retail location. The building was old and had been vacant for years but had lots of potential. It was a huge space and the business owner had big dreams for how they would turn the building into everything they had ever wanted. They could see it, breath it, feel it, smell it. According to the landlord, all they needed to do was invest $20,000 to fix up the building a little. Small loan, should be no problem. It would be perfect, thus guaranteeing a sure thing for the success of the business.
Well….the reality is that construction costs add up really fast. So shockingly fast that money that has been painstakingly, lovingly, carefully saved for years to open a dream business evaporates within seconds. Especially when its an old historic building with special construction requirements, especially when it has been empty for years and plumbing and electrical fixtures are disintegrated, and oh yeah, especially when the landlord has forgotten the heating and air unit doesn’t work so the tenant is responsible for a new one. The result? Construction costs went from hopefully no more than $20,000 to more than $400,000! And that isn’t the cost of making the space ultra beautiful – that is just to bring it up to the required code so that the fire marshal approves them for opening.
If only I could have turned back the clock by a mere two weeks and given them this advice:
Error #1 - Use a commercial real estate attorney to review the lease
The landlord seemed like a nice guy, why he want to screw them over? Nice people just don’t do that…sure they do, especially when there is money involved. Yes, they went at it alone against the landlord. Thus they ended up in an agreement that they didn’t fully understand and resulted in committing to paying the landlord a lot of money even before the business opened. Had an attorney reviewed the lease, they would have said NO to a number of clauses and thrown a more balanced contact back at the landlord for further negotiation.
Error #2 – Insist on construction money
The landlord will be earning a living off you for years so putting in a little money into THEIR building to get the space ready for your needs is expected, especially in this market where there is empty commercial space everywhere. It is perfectly reasonable to ask for it and threaten to walk away it you don’t get it.
Error #3 – Get at least three construction estimates before signing anything
It is important to know exactly what you are getting into. Especially if the landlord refuses to provide all the funding for construction, you need to know how much money you’ll have to shell out to get it all going. Had they done this, they would have discovered before they signed the lease that the building required a lot more problems than it appeared, that the HVAC was not functional and that the true construction bill was 20 times higher than expected.
Error #4 – Do all the research before signing
There might be other complications with this space that you might not be aware of. It might be a historic building or your type of business might require special parking requirements or special permits from the city or. Make the phone calls, find out what you’ll need from all government agencies to operate in this space.
Error #5 – Walk away
Your job as a new small business is to get up and running, find your customers, serve them well and make money. If it not to fix an old cool building, that is the landlord’s job, after all, he owns the building. If the landlord expects you to pay mucho dinero for construction, it probably isn’t worth it. Remember, your dream is to open your business, not to open your business in THIS particular building.
Error #6 – Start small
Sometimes it is better to start small, grow turn into a really successful business and THEN justify the need to expand into a larger space that will fit your dream. You’ll have more options for financing because the business (and your management of it) has been proven.
Tags: small business questions | Posted under Entrepreneurship Stories, General Thoughts | No Comments
Monday, February 15, 2010 | Written by Jim Beach
Posted under: General Thoughts |
Tags: drilling for oil in the US, global warming lies, larry king, us joblessness |
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Ever read Larry King’s USA Today column? ”This is going to be the best year ever! Eaten at Fellini’s? Best pie in America!” Every sentence ends in an exclamation point and complete thoughts run 25 characters at most. Like reading a letter from someone with Tourette Syndrome. Today, that’s waht I feel like doing, lots of random thoughts from the weekend.
We were supposed to get 2 inches of snow last night, but I woke up and the sky was crystal clear blue. What about a startup company that gets the weather right?
Does anyone really think we are going to STOP drilling for oil in the world? Do you environmentalists really think Indians, Chinese, or me are going to stop driving? Of course, we are not! So let’s drill for the oil here in the US. All the lefts goals are better achieved by drilling in the US as opposed to everywhere else. Who will drill for oil in an more environmentally friendly way? Russia or the US. If you really care about the environment, it seems you rather the US do it. We are so much cleaner! And all estimates say drilling here would increase US tax revenue by more than one TRILLION DOLLARS a year. To pay for all your social programs!! And less money gets shipped overseas to “radical thinkers,” you know TERRORISTS!
US joblessness is here for YEARS. Your only path to security is entrepreneurship. Working for the man gets more and more dangerous everyday.
Big companies are so slow, it should scare them. I am working on projects with several big firms and it takes them months to do what an entrepreneur can do in 10 seconds!
Finally, after reading this article on global warming, anyone who still believes needs therapy!
Yeah Larry!! Love the haircut!!
Tags: drilling for oil in the US, global warming lies, larry king, us joblessness | Posted under General Thoughts | No Comments
Thursday, February 11, 2010 | Written by Erik Rostad
Posted under: General Thoughts |
Tags: boomerpreneur, ecopreneur, homepreneur, intrapreneur, mompreneur, types of preneurs |
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In this economic downturn, more and more people are turning to Entrepreneurship. As this is happening, new terms are being created to label these business starters. Which one are you?
- Mompreneurs -Women starting their own businesses while raising children at home – they have their own club – http://www.mompreneurclub.com/
- Homepreneurs -Those finding areas of their house from which to start a business. No more commutes to the office. More time with the family.
- Boomerpreneurs -The over 50 entrepreneur.
- Intrapreneur – Someone coming up with new business ideas within a corporate setting.
- Ecopreneur – The person starting a new ‘green’ business.
Tags: boomerpreneur, ecopreneur, homepreneur, intrapreneur, mompreneur, types of preneurs | Posted under General Thoughts | No Comments
Wednesday, February 10, 2010 | Written by Erik Rostad
Posted under: Creativity and Ideation, General Thoughts, International, Technology, Total Entrepreneurial Activity |
Tags: china overtaking usa patent applications, china patents, global patent applications, wipo |
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The UN recently released their report on the number of Patents applied for per country for 2009. The USA tops the list with 45,790 patent applications. This is about 54% more applications than number 2 on the list, Japan. What is surprising about the list of the top 15 countries is that 14 of them had a decrease in patent applications from 2008 to 2009 or remained relatively flat. China, on the other hand, had 29% more patent applications than the year before.
Right now, China is #5 on the list coming in with 7,946 patent applications for 2009. If China keeps up their application growth rate of 29.7% and the USA continues to decline at 11.4%, China will have more patent applications than the USA by the year 2013. This is not wholly unreasonable as China has averaged a 34% average patent application increase over the past 4 years.
Click here to see the full results, including a patent application list by country and by company. Also, the list of top 15 countries is contained at that link.
Saturday, February 6, 2010 | Written by Jim Beach
Posted under: Business Partners, Consulting, General Thoughts |
Tags: NDAs, Non Disclosure Agreements |
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I was asked yesterday to sign a non-compete, no disclosure agreement (NDA). A friend of mine, someone that I have known for several years, asked for help with financing for a product that I think is really cool. My friend sent some supporting documents, but no financials for the company, just standard promotional or press materials. I wrote back expressing my interest to help and for more, real details. Especially the financial details that will be needed to get financing. My friend indicated I needed to sign a non-compete agreement.
Over the years, I have probably been asked to sign 250 NDAs, and I have signed exactly zero of them. I have asked around too, and no one I know is willing to sign one either.
What does it say when you ask someone to sign a NDA? It sends such a mixed message. On one hand, you want my help and trust me enough to ask for my advice. On the other hand, it yells, “I don’t trust you!” The simple process of asking for the NDA announces that you are not trusted and that someone is already planning for the worst. It is just like demanding a prenuptial agreement. “I love you but not forever!”
The request for a NDA also announces self-doubt and makes me doubt the abilities of the asker. If I had a new product, had invested a year in writing and developing software, I would hope I had enough confidence in the product to know that I could beat all the competition. But by asking for a NDA, it says, “I am concerned that you could catch up with us and bet us at our own game, even though I have a year head start.” Are you that insecure about your talents and product?
Finally, in Georgia and many other states, the NDA is not enforceable. They simply get thrown out in court. So why ask for it? It makes you look like an amateur.
Tags: NDAs, Non Disclosure Agreements | Posted under Business Partners, Consulting, General Thoughts | No Comments
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 | Written by Erik Rostad
Posted under: Entrepreneurship Tools, General Thoughts |
Tags: automatic email invoices, time saving tools for the entrepreneur, vowcher |
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I have a business set up where I have monthly maintenance agreements set up with a number of my clients. On the 1st of each month, I go into Microsoft Word, create and invoice, save it as a PDF, email my client, and wait for the check. I do this for each client. As I add more clients, this has become a task that has consumed more and more time.
I began looking for a solution that would automatically send invoices by email to my clients on the first of each month. I found a service called Vowcher that does just that for a very nominal fee. For just $0.05 an email, Vowcher will send an email invoice to your clients on the date specified. You just set up the invoice once, and they will send the email out automatically. I purchased 100 credits (100 emails) for $5.60. That’s $0.05 per email and a $0.60 credit card transaction fee for payment. Very cheap to save a considerable amount of time.
This service is very nice for property owners collecting rent, for service providers collecting maintenance fees, or basically anyone collecting a monthly fee from your clients. If you no longer want to take the time to create invoice reminders each month, then I would recommend Vowcher to all Entrepreneurs looking to save some time at a very nominal cost.
The Entrepreneur School is in no way affiliated with Vowcher and will not receive any compensation from this blog posting.
Tags: automatic email invoices, time saving tools for the entrepreneur, vowcher | Posted under Entrepreneurship Tools, General Thoughts | No Comments
Thursday, January 28, 2010 | Written by Jim Beach
Posted under: General Thoughts |
Tags: can entrepreneurs be created, entrepreneurs by birth |
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I just got back from a mini-moon, a word I am going to trademark. When you are too busy or poor to go on a full-blown honeymoon, when you can only take 3-4 days, you go on a quick mini-moon instead! Megan and I were married in October, but at the time, I was not healthy enough to travel. So, we are going on several mini-moons. Our first mini-moon was to Vegas, and I plan to propose subsequent mini-moons to Atlantis and to Disney. Be interesting to see if she approves. We stayed at the Venetian, which is completely over the top. They have a square, an entire city square, St. Mark’s, inside the building.
And since I was on a honeymoon, I had lots of time to read! I am reading the incredible SuperFreakonomics, by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. It is the sequel to Freakonomics, of course, probably the best book on economics written in the last 20 years. In the first book, the two Stevens studied why sumo wrestlers cheat, how real estate agents rig the game, and how many teachers change their students’ standardized tests answers for the teachers’ benefit. Their new tome asks how prostitutes are like department store Santas, why major league ball players are born in certain months, why suicide bombers should buy life insurance, why Iran is better at kidney transplants than the US, and many other vital questions. You really should read this book.
The reason I bring all this up is this: they prove that “natural” ability is not important. Raw talent is not important. Time spent perfecting a skill is important. Or, as they conclude, “expert performers – whether in soccer or piano playing, surgery or computer programming – are nearly always made, not born.” My takeaway? Entrepreneurship can be taught. It is not something you are born with!
Tags: can entrepreneurs be created, entrepreneurs by birth | Posted under General Thoughts | No Comments
Wednesday, January 27, 2010 | Written by Jacob Dearolph
Posted under: Apple, General Thoughts |
Tags: Apple, Apple Tablet, Entreprneur, iPad |
2 Comments
Apple Tablet now called iPad is being announced right now. The only way to follow is live blogs. Check out the links below (after my thoughts). I’ll be updating more with my thoughts and opinions for entrepreneurs. By the way here at The Entrepreneur School we LOVE Apple 80% of our staff uses Apples so this will a be an interesting product to view from an Entrepreneur’s perspective.
Picture courtesy of Apple.comSo at 2:14 I’m thinking that this is cool and there could be some uses for my business but currently I’m thinking it isn’t enough for me to buy. It depends on price and what they do with mobile connecitons.
2:16 Just announced mobile plans. 15 bucks for 250 mbs and 29.99 for unlimited. Combined with my iPhone plans this is a no go. The one benefit is no contract. Prices are still too high.
2:17 No mention of mobile me yet?
2:20 Pricing is 500 bucks (starting from) – so just is enough for the price. I have an iPhone and a Macbook Pro. As a friend of mine said this just isn’t for us. (Late 20s with apple products; aspiring entrepreneurs) I think my dad will buy this. He has mac computers but no iPhone. This is perfect for him.
2:22 From a friend “it really is a good deal….assuming you don’t have an iphone at least”
2:24 Just had an update from a live blog feed – deal killer 16GB device with 3g is 629 dollars. Just too much for me for not enough upgrade from iPhone. If I wasn’t bootstrapping I might consider it. The accessories answer some of my questions about typing. They will all be priced too much though. I wonder if you can use a regular mac blue tooth keyboard and then switch between devices. If so that would be great and logical. If not its just a ripoff.
2:33 Steve is now bragging about how awesome Apple is. They definitely are great. This product is going to be cool and will get better. I won’t be purchasing it any time soon and I think that many other people will feel the same.
2:38 It looks like it is wrapping up. It looks to me that this will make a great Saturday Night Live skit. Someone comes walking out with a big brick like iPhone screaming about how awesome their iPad is. The someone else comes out and ask if it can be used a maxipad…
My additional comments:
It seems like this was rushed out either due to quarterly earnings pressure (ie they knew the market is reaching saturation point with iPhones, notebooks, and iPods) or competitive pressure was mounting and there was more gain to being a first mover and not be ultra super cool like the iPhone.
Comments from friends and fellow entrepreneurs:
“...this reminds me of the the high school student who procrastinated on his science project all semester and then the night before dug up an old project, changes some pictures and words around and then tried to pass it off as something new”
“app developers really hold the success/failure of this one”
“the hardware, although not revolutionary, is still the best/craziest platform……the dissapointing point was the software capabilities they showed.”
“you know….they left a lot of stuff out: gps – no? speakers? iwork free? sync with ilife?”
“they better not hold back on iphone 4 to push people to this turd … no usb … well….the standard 30 pin – apple usb … no isight camera …. do you sync iphone with ipad? or do both need another computer to sync?”
Links:
http://www.apple.com/ipad/#video
Links for live blog:
- http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/live-from-the-apple-tablet-latest-creation-event/
- http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/live-blog-of-apples-january-27th-media-event/
- http://theappleblog.com/2010/01/26/live-coverage-of-apples-january-27-media-event/
- www.gizmodo.com
- www.9to5mac.com
Tags: Apple, Apple Tablet, Entreprneur, iPad | Posted under Apple, General Thoughts | 2 Comments
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 | Written by Jacob Dearolph
Posted under: Bootstrapping, Business Partners, Creativity and Ideation, Entrepreneurship Quotes, Entrepreneurship Stories, General Thoughts, The Entrepreneur School |
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1 Comment
We are currently at the University of Georgia with Jim and Chris. They are answering questions on entrepreneurship for a group of students. We are filming the Q&A series as it will be apart of The Entrepreneur School.
I’ve listed the questions below along with some highlights from the answers.
1. How was the transition from working for Coke to Entrepreneur?
2. How would you advise a student who is transitioning from Undergrad to either entrepreneurship or a grad degree?
3. If spending a great deal of money on a startup raises risk how do you start a business with little captial? Even as a student?
4. Should I work for an entreprneur or start slow and small on my own?
5. If I am only going to spend 5k-10k where would I spend the money?
6. How do I get the idea in the first place?
7. What are some necessary legal aspects of starting a business?
8. How do you choose a business partner and selection of equity for each?
9. Does bartering work for bootstrapping?
10. How do you determine what is a good deal with web programming?
11. Are there differences between what you are saying here for an independent contractor?
12. How does a web marketer or service business entrepreneur advertise itself?
13. When should you start paying yourself?
14. You’ve both started businesses where you were the originated the idea how did you bring in people who you could trust; instill the idea; etc…?
15. What are you 1 or 2 reasons for success or failure?
