Posts Tagged ‘entrepreneur’
All Businesses start with an idea!, How do you find the right one??
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Why people dont start their own business…..Some real reasons
(Extract from article BR Dowling)
1. Some people just don’t want to…great no issue, being an entrepreneur is not the be all and end all. The majority of people who work for themselves work extremely long hours just to get by. Many many others try and fail. Unless you are an extremely unbalanced individual most of us know that the ultimate goal is to lead a happy and fulfilled life during our short allotted time on planet earth. What is a happy and fulfilled life is for each and every one of us to define for ourselves. It is ones of life’s great gifts that we get to set our own standards and goals the fact that many people choose badly and end up miserable is outside the remit of this article. The fact remains that your family, peers, colleagues and every dog on the street may be telling you that fulfilment lies in money/ fast cars/ high profile promotions etc. You are free to decide that for you its flip flops a surf board and enough cash to get by. Screw them it is your life…if you can achieve true happiness for the majority of your life you my friend are the real winner in this silly little game.
2. The Fear Factor…. Given that you are reading an article like this you probably are not surfing at the moment, so you think that you want a crack of the entrepreneurial whip. Ok then. The Fear Factor holds more people back from starting their own business than probably anything else. The old ‘what if’ deamons have caused millions of would be entrepreneurs to turn back and walk away from the scary dark edge with its lurking dangers and uncertain hidden treasures. For its sheer ability to slay ideas and dreams the fear factor remains the number one reason that people do not give it a go.
3. People are lazy…..Sad but true may people would kind of like to be successful but will never make the effort to actually make it happen. It is so much easier to talk about doing stuff and to wait ‘till the time is right’ than to actually go for it. If you are in this category please take the following advice. Admit it to yourself!!. By giving up the game you will take the pressure off yourself, focus on something else that you enjoy and get on with your life. This may seem harsh but it is a case of being cruel to be kind. There is a window of opportunity in everyone’s life to start their own business, this is not age specific but for every Colonel Saunders who founded KFC in his sixties there are hundreds of people who put themselves financially and physically at risk at a time in their life when they should be looking to retirement. There are exceptions to every rule but being successful involves being smart and realistic.
Important note: beware the disgruntled would be entrepreneur, this is a dangerous breed that will be full of stories about how they nearly invested in this or that that would have made them a fortune. They nearly patented some form of widget that would have been a runner etc. Avoid at all costs, they will have nothing positive to say about your plans but will be able to tell you how they tried ‘something like that’ and it didn’t work out. They will hate to see you succeed, you don’t want to be around this kind of energy.
4. People lack personal confidence and therefore (they think) the ability to run a business. A lack of personal confidence will kill the entrepreneurial spirit in those afflicted by it. It undoubtedly has other negative implications on their life but again these falls outside the purpose of this book. Entering the battleground of business with little or no personal confidence or self belief is as stupid as it gets. Sort it out…life is too short.
Importance of living Your Brand
Yesterday I had an interesting experience in Heathrow airport that made me realize just how much everyone in your organisation needs to live your brand.
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Viral Loop – From Facebook to Twitter
If you are interested in using the Internet to grow your business virally, then “Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves” is a must-read.
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Company: www.theclothesline.ie
Website: as above
Founders: Tammy Darcy
Age: 30
Based: Waterford
Staff Number: Just me so far!
Date started: February 10
Tell us what your business does?
The website offers parents the opportunity to submit their outgrown or unsuitable kids, babies and maternity clothes in exchange for credits which can be applied towards the purchase of more suitable items
Where did the idea for your business come from?
As a mother of three, the idea actually evolved over a number of years, and I decided to go for it when I lost my job.
Have you always wanted to run your own business?
No! There are obvious pros and cons to running your own business but I feel passionate about what I am doing so I don’t have a problem staying motivated
What planning did you do before you started up?
I researched the idea for six months and tested every aspect of the business before I launched.
What challenges have you faced how have you overcome them?
The biggest challenge is balancing work and home life. When you run your own business it’s very hard to switch off at the end of the working day.
How have you promoted your business?
Because the business is very much a public interest subject, I have received a lot of media interest. Apart from that I have done a lot of online promotion through social networking sites. It really works, and its free!
What has your growth been like?
I’m very happy, we’ve been live for less than a month and it’s hard to keep up with the growth. But its testament to the power of word of mouth amongst parents.
What’s the impact on your home life been like?
I’m lucky to be able to plan my time around my family demands. There are times when it’s a challenge but it’s great to be able to collect them from school, something I wasn’t able to do when I was in full time employment.
Pierre Omidyar’s Success Story – Famous Entrepreneurs
“I never had it in mind that I would start a company one day and it would really be successful. I have just been motivated by working on interesting technology.”
Growing Up
Omidyar was born in Paris in 1967. He moved to Baltimore when his father began his term of residence at Johns Hopkins. Omidyar became captivated by computers while at high school and skipped his gym classes in order to use it. Noticing the boy’s keen interest, the principle gave him the job of creating a program that would produce catalog cards for the library. He was paid $6 an hour.
At Tufts University, Omidyar worked on a program to assist Macintosh programmers with computer memory problems. His request that users of this shareware file pay on the honour system did not bring many replies; the cheques that should have been going to fund his years as a computer science undergraduate went solely to paying for the post office box.
In 1991, Omidyar went to work with three friends to create pen-computing programs. Though Pen computing was a dismal failure, the e-commerce site (eShop) on the Web site that Omidyar introduced and operated enticed Microsoft to buy the company.
Starting The Business
Omidyar went to work with General Magic, a software company, in 1994 and made extra money designing Web pages on the side. The girl he was dating at the time, Pamela Wesley, who would later become his wife, collected Pez dispensers and often complained how difficult it was to meet others passionate about her hobby on the internet. Thoughtfully, Omidyar appended a small online auction to his personal website so Pamela would make contacts with other collectors as well as buy and sell.
eBay (electronic Bay, as in the San Francisco Bay area), as it was when it first appeared in 1995, operated merely as a forum for people to sell and bid on various items. Omidyar did not back goods, mediate conflicts, or get involved if there were accusations of dishonesty or abuse of the system. Almost immediately, collectors of Barbie dolls, Beanie babies and the like flocked to eBay.
Three months after its launch, Omidyar had to ask his friend Jeff Skoll, also a programmer, for help. In order to cover the new costs involved with the growth of the business, Omidyar began charging small change to list an item on the site and took a small commission if the item was bought.
Building An Empire
Omidyar was surpised by his continued success and had to hire someone to open the large number of cheques that were being sent in. He was also surprised that people were not simply using the site to buy and sell, but also as a meeting place where relationships were made over common interests.
After qutting his day job, Omidyar worked along with Skoll to improve eBay. They felt that if a sturdy framework was in place, business would generate by itself. After just under two years of operation, eBay was one of the most popular internet sites, 1,50000 users bidding on 794,000 items daily. And the company was now doubling every three months.
At such a rate of growth, Omidyar and Skoll sought venture capital assistance and a management team that would further move the company forward. Benchmark Capital gave the partners a $4.5 million cheque for 22% of the company. Benchmark also found a CEO for eBay, Margaret Whitham, an executive from Hasbro, and with her leadership, the business became a slick corporate entity. With a new look, better publicity, and greater organization, eBay went public on September 24, 1998. Within four months of trading, the stock, which started at $18 per share, was worth $300. Omidyar became a billionaire.
Now selling far more than just Pez dispensers, eBay has completely changed e-commerce. Despite increasing competition, eBay continues to grow. Omidyar recognized and seized the opportunity that essentially fell into his lap and revolutionized internet use.
Looking for an alternative source of investment capital? Check out first step microfinance.
The goal is the creation of enterprise through self employment and they provide loans of up to €25,000 to start up or expanding new businesses.
First-Step provides loans to people who want to create their own enterprise and who cannot access funding, or sufficient funding, from other sources.
The core goal is to help finance start up and expanding Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s) to provide job opportunities. They have an application and screening process which evaluates the applications received and stress tests them for likely success based on information received.
First-Step is a private not-for-profit company. First-Step receives funding from Enterprise Ireland through the EU Seed and Venture Capital Fund and the Social Finance Foundation. First-Step is the beneficiary of an SME Guarantee Facility created within the framework of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) of the European Community.
Warren Buffet – The Snowball and The Business Of Life
Why Read It?
•The first full biography of Warren Buffett, the most famous investor of all time, written with his full cooperation and collaboration.
•Gives a lucid account of his life and career, from his first financial forays to becoming a revered investment guru.
•Analyses his business deals and strategies, as well as mistakes, by looking at the development of his investing style, his many investment partnerships, and how he built up his fortune.
•Snowball is a thorough and inclusive biography of the world’s greatest investor, examining his family history, his youthful adventures, and how he developed his investment acumen.
•It shows how Buffett came from a line of small business owners, and how his parents toiled through the Great Depression, and how his somewhat unbalanced mother shaped his outlook on life.
•Reveals that his investment career took off with the purchase of textile firm Berkshire Hathaway, and explains how he grew it into the 12th largest corporation in the United States.
•It combines biographical detail with an examination of his business deals, focusing on the development of his expertise, strategy, and investment philosophy.
•Lays bare the real Buffett—his moral viewpoint, honesty, and integrity, as well as his many contradictions, such as his frugality, eccentric eating habits, and choice of clothing.
•Details how he built up his business expertise, and the success of his many investment partnerships.
•Gives a detailed account of his investments over the years, how he selected companies in which to invest, his definition of risk, and how he decided how much to actually invest in each company.
•Shows his successful preference for long-term investing in sound businesses that he can understand, as well as belief in stewardship and integrity towards these companies.
•Examines how he has evolved into the figurehead of value investing after his guru Benjamin Graham, rather than as someone who follows market bubbles, such as the tech boom of the late 1990s.
•Looks at his dependence on friends and a network of business associates, and how his collaboration with other investment managers proved essential to his success.
•Provides insight into Buffett’s focus on customer loyalty, the quality of management, choosing allies carefully, and avoiding unnecessary diversity.
•Shows how he was one of the first to point out the inherent danger in derivative products, and how they could affect the financial system.
Quotations
“Warren may have said he wanted to become a millionaire, but he never said that he would stop there.”
“Berkshire’s best opportunities always came at times of uncertainty, when others lacked the insight, resources, and fortitude to make the right judgments and commit.”
“Cash combined with courage in a crisis is priceless.
Two of the most frequently asked questions for people looking at a startup scenario are:
1) How do I setup a company, and
2) What type of company should I set up
How do I set up a company?
The Companies Registration Office (CRO www.cro.ie) is the government body responsible for registering all Irish businesses. The offices are on Parnell square in Dublin opposite the entrance to the garden of rememberance. The staff are generally quite helpful and will be able to point you to any forms that you will require. The CRO have a very good website and most things can be now done through their online filing system.
An easier alternative is to use the services of one of the many formation companies that will register the company on your behalf. They will provide you with a company seal (required for many legal docuements such as leases etc.), articles and memorandum of association etc.
Note: Do not be tempted to rush through this stage in your enthusiasm to get started!! The name of the company, list of Directors and Shareholding structure of the comapny, naming of Chairperson, secretary etc are extremely big decisions and should not be taken lightly. For example if down the road you fall out with your partners these details will be deciding factors in who has the upper hand legally!
A formation company will charge about €300 to register the company on your behalf. I have used www.formations.ie and found them to be very professional.
What type of company should I set up?
For most people the choice is either Sole Trader Or Limited liability company. Your accountant should advise you on the best structure for you. Generally speaking sole trader suits an individual running a business primarily on their own i.e A window Cleaning service, Painter etc. It can be a good idea to start the company as a sole trader and then move on to Limited liability if the business grows and more people become involved. The paperwork requirements for a sole trader are significantly less than for limited liability companies.
The idea behind a limited liability company is that an entity (the company) is seperate from the directors and shareholders. For example if a company does not pay its bills the company is sued not the directors. In reality, particularily in the current climate, most suppliers will look for personal guarantees from directors of the company before they will supply. This negates the protection of the limited liability. If a number of people are involved and if the company turnover is likely to be significant than forming a Limited company is recommended. It is important to be aware however that the filing and returns required by the CRO for limited companies are taken very seriously. If you are late with annual returns, significant fines will build up, also companies are entitled to an audit exemption for the first few years. If you do not file your returns on time you will lose this exemption. Furthermore shutting down a limited company is quite difficult and costly (you need to put an advertisement in the paper etc!!). Many people ignore the boring responsibilities of setting up a company in their initial enthusiasm, unless you are aware of your obligations you will find yourself and fellow directors spending lots of money on accounting audits and fines. If you put your head in the sand and ignore your CRO obligations , the company may be handed over to the Office of Corporate affairs who have the power to prosecute companies who breach the regulations. Don’t say I didn’t warn you !!!
Company: AscenTrust Limited
Website: www.ascentrust.com
Founders: Conall Lavery & Perry Ram
Age: 55 and 43
Based: Ireland with back office in India
Staff Number: 22
Date started: November 2008
Tell us what your business does?
AscenTrust helps small companies reduce the cost of producing accounts without any degradation of accuracy or timeliness. AscenTrust’s management accounts help organisations make better business decisions. The low cost of AscenTrust’s back office in India is passed onto its clients, however the client only works with AscenTrust’s Irish based accountants. Services include; bookkeeping, payroll, budgeting and management accounts. The client can keep their existing accounting software, or they can change to an online accounting system. Excellent management accounts facilitate timely decision making.
Where did the idea for your business come from?
Perry and Conall attended a business program in Harvard Business School in 2000 and talked a lot about how small businesses were going to have to change to meet the challenges ahead. We both agreed that strategic outsourcing was going to be an important component. We kept in touch over the years, and both of us sold our companies in 2006. When Perry decided to relocate back to Ireland (his previous business was in the USA) he contacted Conall to see if he would like to start an outsourcing business with him in Ireland.
Have you always wanted to run your own business?
Both of the founders had founded and sold previous business – so I suppose the answer is, yes.
What planning did you do before you started up?
The initial contact was in December 2007 and we spent a good deal of time in 2008 researching and planning. We carried out some research into a number of different functions that we would serve with an outsourced business and settled on accounting services. We obtained global reports on outsourcing, we met outsourcing companies in the USA in our sector, we spoke to accountancy firms and potential end users. We then developed a business plan and registered the business on 7th November 2008. The business is funded by the founding partners.
Which Irish Entrepreneurs do you admire?
All of them but Eddie O’Connor of Mainstream Renewable Power and previously Airtricity stands out amongst them. It is hard not to admire Denis O’Brien.
What challenges have you faced how have you overcome them?
Our biggest challenge is the cost of sales to win new clients. The cost of our service is such that sales and marketing costs can eat up the first year to two years of contribution from each client, so we need to be smart about how we win customers. We are exploring partnerships with other organisations and looking to marketing to solve these problems. In the short term we need reference sites for each business segment we enter.
Have you promoted your business?
Yes, we have. We started in January 2009 with a “soft launch” as we needed reference clients. We started promoting the company in July 2009. We have two websites www.ascentrust.com and www.payrolls4u.com. We have done mailshots, placed advertisement in business and sector specific magazines and we have done a great deal of business networking.
What has your growth been like?
Initially we had some quick wins from the business development / research done in 2008, we then focused on developing the service and in the last quarter of 2009 we started to reap the rewards.
What’s the impact on your home life been like?
As I worked for myself in the past the home impact has been low. Indeed, as I mostly use the office in my house, I am probably around more than I was before.
