entrepreneur
Ask Right Questions Before Becoming An Entrepreneur
By Martin at March 18, 2015 | 11:04 am | 0 Comment
As a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, the most common question I get is, “I want to be an entrepreneur -- how do I start?” The obvious answer is that you need an idea first, but I’ve come to realize that the process is really much more complex than that. Many people with great ideas never make it as entrepreneurs, and true entrepreneurs can make a business out of more...
5 Basic Strategies That Every Entrepreneur Should Learn
By Martin at March 11, 2015 | 11:49 am | 0 Comment
Every entrepreneur realizes that change is now the norm, and they have to adapt their business quickly to survive and prosper. In fact, the best entrepreneurs seem to see breakthrough changes coming even before they really happen, and are able to turn them into huge new opportunities. In the trade, this rare capability is called the ability to see around corners. While more...
Great Leadership Lessons For Entrepreneurs
By Martin at July 7, 2014 | 10:40 am | 0 Comment
Entrepreneurship is all about leading – leading customers to a new product or service, leading a startup team to peak performance, and leading a new business to the market opportunity, while providing maximum return to stakeholders. Most entrepreneurs feel they have innate leadership talents, but struggle with how to nurture these abilities and measure their more...
Why You Want To Be An Entrepreneur Rather Than Be An Employee
By Martin at February 17, 2014 | 8:11 am | 0 Comment
You are an aspiring entrepreneur, eager to dump the corporate grind, and work to the beat of your own drummer, but you can’t come up with that killer idea to save the world. What are the alternatives that will give you the independence you crave, and challenge your business acumen? Technically, I believe an entrepreneur is anyone who manages his own profit and loss, more...
MBA Entrepreneurs Vs Non MBAs Entrepreneur
By Martin at February 11, 2014 | 8:29 am | 0 Comment
I don’t have an MBA. I used to fear that this would put me at a disadvantage in starting my own company, but now I’m convinced that it may be the other way around. In some reputable surveys, as many as two-thirds of entrepreneurs felt that their entrepreneurial spirit was more ingrained than learned, so a specific education level is at least irrelevant. For more...
Some Tips For Hyperlocal Startups
By Martin at September 21, 2013 | 8:23 am | 0 Comment
Even though the world is getting smaller, due to easy global connectivity, people still feel alone if not well-connected locally. There is also more going on in every location, so this personal need and super sensitivity to the local community has spawned a new breed of Internet startups, called “hyperlocal.” The term first appeared at least five years ago, but the more...
Is There Any ShortCut To StartupSuccess?
By Martin at September 19, 2013 | 8:17 am | 0 Comment
Businesses always seem to take longer to succeed than an entrepreneur expects. Seth Godin once said that overnight success in startups takes about six years, and Seth is an optimist. Thus we all look for shortcuts. Execution shortcuts would be hidden strategies to achieve the endgame sooner, without losing 40 to 60 percent of the financial potential along the way. The more...
Why Every Entrepreneur Should Be Master Of Realignment
By Martin at August 22, 2013 | 7:57 am | 0 Comment
Every entrepreneur’s first priority should be the alignment of interests across the range of constituents required for success – partners, investors, customers, vendors, and employees. The best are ones quickest and most willing to do the realignment on a continuous basis these days, as the market changes, customer interests change, and you learn from more...
Basic Skills Required To Be An Entrepreneur
By Martin at August 17, 2013 | 8:43 am | 0 Comment
The ultimate compliment that any entrepreneur can get is that they can “see around corners.” This is a statement that they are willing and able (and successful) at projecting market and technology turns, not just straight-line innovations. They have the courage to make bold decisions, often contrary to conventional market research. Steve Jobs of Apple has been more...
How To Find Out If You Are Good Enough To Become An Entrepreneur
By admin at July 15, 2013 | 8:09 am | 0 Comment
Making the decision to become an entrepreneur is a major commitment, with huge implications for skills and lifestyle. Yet there is no standardized testing or certification required or available anywhere to help you decide if you are a good fit for entrepreneurship, or entrepreneurship is right for you. An MBA or other academic credentials just don’t do it. Therefore, more...
Customer Service Tips For Entrepreneurs
By Martin at June 22, 2013 | 12:07 pm | 0 Comment
Most leaders agree that poor customer service is a business killer today, in terms of lost customers, reduced profits, and low morale. Yet the average perception of customer experience continues to decline. Young entrepreneurs and startups, in particular, often remain naively unfocused, despite their passion, of what it takes to provide the high-quality service more...
Why Personal Integrity Is Important For Entrepreneur?
By admin at May 1, 2013 | 8:24 am | 0 Comment
As an entrepreneur, your personal integrity is critical for getting and keeping the support of investors and team members, and your company’s integrity is critical for getting and keeping customers and vendors. But in a practical sense, what does that really mean? Most definitions of integrity include something like “the quality of being honest and morally more...
How To Minimize Risk In Your Startup Company?
By Martin at April 29, 2013 | 8:15 am | 0 Comment
You have probably heard plenty of times that being an entrepreneur is a risky business, and investors talk all the time about reducing the risk. Yet everyone seems to have their own view of key risk drivers for startups, and I’m no exception. I don’t agree, for example, that the first priority is to avoid startups with a high attrition rate, like trendy restaurants more...
How To Start A New Career As An Entrepreneur
By Martin at April 15, 2013 | 8:32 am | 0 Comment
These days I see a surge of new startups as the economy seems to be recovering. If you are not starting one yourself, the next best thing is joining one as a partner, or as an early employee. It takes much the same preparation to make you the best entrepreneur, or the best job candidate. Of course experience is the best teacher, but you need to get the job to get the more...
5 Points To Consider While Moving From Employee To Becoming An Entrepreneur
By Martin at March 29, 2013 | 8:17 am | 0 Comment
5 Points To Consider While Moving From Employee To Becoming An Entrepreneur Many people, especially those who have spent years struggling up the corporate ladder, dream of jumping ship and becoming an entrepreneur. But every job move is fraught with risk, and the move from employee to entrepreneur is on the high end of the risk curve. This is a big jump, especially more...
Tips For Engineers Who Wants To Become Entrepreneur
By Martin at March 26, 2013 | 8:18 am | 0 Comment
Every engineer who has invented some new technology, or is adept at creating solutions, believes that is the hard part, and it should be a short step to take that solution to market as an entrepreneur. In reality, that short business step embodies far more risk, and a poor technology solution is not near the top of most lists of common reasons for business failures. more...
Smart Tips For Your Kids To Become A Entrepreneur
By Martin at March 16, 2013 | 9:43 am | 0 Comment
I continue to see stories of really young entrepreneurs, like this article on Business Insider, with pre-teens as young as 9 years old who make millions more than their parents. This makes me wonder what starts that entrepreneurial drive in kids, and how early parents and schools should start teaching the basics. There are already a couple of good books out there for more...
How To Define Traction Metrics For Your Startup
By Martin at February 27, 2013 | 8:27 am | 0 Comment
Almost every early-stage startup who has approached investors for funding has heard the innocuous sounding rejection “I love your idea, but come back when you have more traction.” What does traction really mean to investors, and how much is enough? Let me try to clarify the rules, and what it takes to win at this game. First of all, a definition. Traction is more...
Why You Need “Go-To-People” In Your Startup Company?
By Martin at February 26, 2013 | 8:20 am | 0 Comment
Go-to people get things done. As an entrepreneur, you need these people, and you need to be one, if you expect your startup to be successful. That may be easier said than done, since resumes do not tell the story, and without real nurturing, the best people won’t stay around long. To highlight how rare this breed is, Jeffrey Gandz of the Richard Ivey School of more...
Who Make Better Entrepreneur,Men or Women?
By Martin at February 13, 2013 | 8:51 am | 0 Comment
Do you think men make better entrepreneurs than women, and why? I did some research on this subject a while back, and I found some interesting perspectives. Everyone seems to agree that women think differently than men, and run their businesses differently, but there is a lot less agreement on which styles are better or worse. First of all, it is evident that there are more...
