Posts Tagged ‘entrepreneur’
Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin..Reviewed by Fiscal Student
Did you ever see someone at work or in school achieve something really great, and think to yourself, you know what, I knew that guy/girl a while back and she didn’t seem that much better than me. Well the good news is your right, the bad news is that they succeeded where you failed through tremendous hard work. Geoff Colvin’s book is quite comprehensive in its study of excellent human performance across multiple fields from chess to golf to business and music. In all cases the greatest performers had been practicing extremely hard for at least 10 years before any exceptional performance was achieved.
You often hear commentators say of Tiger Woods, he makes it look so easy, the truth is that the shot he is playing probably is easier than he’s used to. A good example of this is a technique used frequently by Tiger to practice bunker shots. He drops a couple of balls in the sand trap, and then stands on them, burying them into the sand, before practicing this shot for hours. So if he is faced with what most people would consider a difficult bunker shot in a major tournament, it is much easier than what he has been preparing for. Extraordinary achievers practice consistently over long periods of time and continually make that practice more challenging as their skills improve.
This book comes to the conclusion that while a certain amount of performance is unaccounted for by hard work, the success which is attributed to innate gifts is overrated. If anything is the difference between great performers and the rest of us it is the motivation to do the required work.
This is a well researched and well written book. I also found it very inspiring because what your parents tell you when your younger is true, anything is possible if you work hard enough. Or as the old saying goes, “You know how to get to Carnegie Hall?” practice, practice, practice….
Thank You FiscalStudent….looking forward to reading this one!
www.fiscalstudent.com
As the list of marketing options grows to include social networking, email marketing and whisper campaigns, small- and medium-size businesses must have a solid marketing strategy.
But the truth is that more than half of new businesses don’t bother. A recent survey found that 58.9 per cent of small-business owners don’t prepare an annual marketing strategy or attempt to identify the benefit and cost of marketing. This could be why the failure rate of small businesses is so high in the first year.
The director of Marketing News, Mary Brennan is not surprised by the research.
“A lot of businesses don’t put much thought into a marketing plan and as a result, it’s often done ad hoc,” she says.
“Businesses need to realise that marketing isn’t an expense but a legitimate business-building activity.”
But a lot of small businesses don’t know how to develop a marketing strategy.
“Often they will try a marketing technique based on their own ideas or what may seem like a bargain only to realise it only reached a small percentage of their target market, by which time their budget is blown,” she says.
The classic first step for Irish businesses is something like a leaflet drop or taking an ad out in the local paper. Often this course of action is taken in the absence of any other ideas!
A marketing plan should look at how a business will promote itself to its target audience, usually over a 12-month period.
Brennan says a marketing plan should include a detailed budget and examine the best ways to promote the business.
“You want [it] to take in analysis of your competitors and to have specific goals,” she says.
“It also needs to break down how much you’ve set aside for marketing, how you’re going to spend it, look at who your target audience is and how you tackle internal and external communications.”
A marketing plan for a small business might be only a few pages long but larger businesses often require a more-detailed plan.
The plan needs to be revisited monthly – or, at the very least, quarterly, Brennan says.
Business owners can write their own plan or if they have no experience in Marketing should contact an expert, even having a chat with one or two marketing companies will give you new ideas and an insight into how professionals appraoch marketing. You may not end up hiring anyone but I guarantee you will pick up some valuable tips along the way.
“We found that companies are either too busy to stop and write a marketing strategy or simply don’t place enough value on having a plan in place,” according to Brennan.
Like other key aspects of developping a successful business your marketing activity must be relevant and effective. If marketing is an area of weakness for you find a solution / person to manage it. You may have the best product or service in the world but unless the right people (your target market) know about it you are dead in the water. Do not ignore marketing your business and if your efforts to date have not been succesful it means one of two things …your idea sucks or you are no good at marketing…so which is it?
Is anyone else loving the Irish apprentice this year or is it just me? I have to say I am totally hooked, this is car crash TV at its best. I have noticed a growing trend among people who love reality TV all of a sudden but feel embarassed to admit it!. Between the X Factor on Saturday and Sunday and The Apprentice on Monday sitting in has never been so much fun.
Each week I find myself praying that the Breffmeister survives for another week, the show will just not be the same without him. I actually think that he is the funniest character on Irish TV since Ardal O’Hanlon’s Fr Dougal McGuire. This is the man who describes his background as rowing, has shocked the people of Cork by claiming to be one of them, speaks like Prince Charles illigitimate son and gets more likeable with each week.
<
Last week saw Breff kick ass in the Cadburys chocolate challenge. He has had his ideas rejected and mocked before even though his gut instincts were proved to be on the money in previous tasks. Not this time! despite the clever attempts by Aoiffffe to cover all the bases by saying that she supports all ideas 100% and then 5 minutes later stating that she is totally opposed to the idea hence being able to pull either card out in the boardroom, the Breffmeister stood firm, hanging up on the patronising backstabbers and sticking to the task at hand.
Breff won the day and in the process his stock shot up. As an act of concession to the nose out of joint duo of Aoifffe and Ruth, Breff let Ruth present for the team, her robotic presentation (see below) and funeral parlouresque choice of entertainment nearly blew the Breffmeisters victory.
Expect no quarter to be given in future, go Breff go............
Startups Technology blog by John from www.complex.ie
Introduction
From 15k RAID 5 SCSI HDD’s to that all important 1920×1200 WUXGA Matte display, yes with rubbish bamboozling terms like that you might be tempted to put technology for your business way down the “todo” list. Well this is a big mistake. Your business needs to use IT from the very beginning to have any hope of even matching the competition. Yet if used correctly, technology can help any small business punch way way above their weight. Follow these few tips to have your business roaring like the God of thunder gargling with nails!
The Landline
Forget about phone land lines such as Eircom, you need what is known as a “VOIP” phone system. Get a fast internet connection, any VOIP phone handset and sign up for a www.blueface.ie account. This will give you 1) your all important land line number with the ability to take 5 calls at the same time, 2) Fax line and 3) it’s VOIP so you can move that landline number anywhere with an internet connection or even route calls to your mobile at your leisure. Don’t forget that’s only scratching the surface of a VOIP phone system’s capabilities.
The Mobile
A mobile phone is not just used for taking calls. Pick up a smart phone (such as blackberry) for instant access to email. Your phone’s calendar and contacts will also be linked into your main email system (Google Apps). Adding an entry to your calendar on the phone will sync it on all your computers automatically wirelessly over the air. Even your business partner or secretary can add in calendar reminders for you on their computers that sync to your phone automatically.
Domain Name
Register a domain name and try to get one with words related to your business in the name. If your business is called Contoso and you are wedding DJ, well www.contoso.com is of little no use, you need to try register www.weddingdj.ie and yes if your business is based only in Ireland, that needs to be a dot ie not dot com – Google.com will redirect most Irish searchers to Google.ie and Google.ie always gives higher ranking to sites ending with a dot ie. Registering a ie domains used to be expensive but www.Blacknight.com have fantastic deals.
Website
Before you run wild looking at designs creating a site, don’t forget the purpose. Sales and Marketing. You may have a pretty site but if people can’t find it well I’m sorry but let me whisper to you…..it’s useless… For a website to generate business you need to have it at the top of Google. There are three top spots in Google. 1) If you pay for Google adwords 2) Submit your business to Maps (these appear under adwords for any search that has a place in the search term e.g. wedding DJ Dublin) and finally 3) Google Organic listings.
For 1) Adwords, make sure your web development company has your site ranked at least 7/10 with Google – the higher the rank the cheaper the ads. Adwords is a bidding war but if you are not up on top it’s a waste of time and money. The worst is to be paying just that small amount under the competition and only appear on the side right panel. Increase the bids until you are at top.
Submit your business to maps for point 2) at www.google.com/local/add and please take time to fill in everything loading in as many keywords related to your business as you can.
Finally, to get to the top of Google organic listings, ask your web developers to optimise the website for search engines and install a wordpress blog. You must run a blog and make regular posts , at least once a week in the correct way -by this I mean ensure you have loaded up the title of your blog post with keywords “Wedding Music Service by Wedding DJ in Cavan” and follow this by adding keyword tags “Wedding DJ Dublin” “Wedding DJ Cavan” etc.
So as you can see, getting the website to the top is a job in itself but put in some hard work and it will become your entire sales team.
The Email
Less than 5 people? Google Apps. Google Apps. Google Apps. Nothing can beat this for a new small business. It acts like a central email server storing all your email, gives you SPAM and Virus free access over the internet, through Outlook, on your mobile phone. All email is synced too which gives full access to all email including sent items from anywhere. You can always move to a server running email software when you are a bigger company.
The Network
Again, with Less than five people do not buy a server. A real server will cost 3k to 5k – and please don’t even consider the cheap “fake” sub 1k servers that are nothing more than glorified PC’s. Use your own PC in the office to act as the server, sharing out files and keeping the files and folders in a central location with two USB external drives as backup. Swap the backups disks every Friday and bring one home for that all important off-site backup. There are other options too like www.dropbox.com and www.idrive.com if you trust having your files with a third party. Antivirus software is essential as is your office productivity software – Microsoft Office 2007 or Open Office are the typical choices.
Remote Access
A free option here is to use www.logmein.com or alternatively a firewall for your network will provide remote access with additional security features. Remote access will let you work on your office computer from anywhere as if you are sitting at your desk.
General Tips
Going that extra mile is absolutely essential to any new business starting up and IT is like the coach running along side shouting words of encouragement. Whether it’s the technology that allows you to take that vital call/answer that important email out of hours or perhaps finish that tender document remotely on the office computer from home on a Saturday morning. The extra mile turns into an extra 26 mile marathon with success at the finish line.
Great Blog John Thank You.
Contact John at www.complex.ie for great web design and IT Support
The Three Pillars Of Entrepreneurship
Whether you are starting a new business or already running an established one, there are three pillars of entrepreneurship that can make the difference between running a business that just pays the bills – or one that truly thrives. So what are they?
Research
While “research” may seem like a boring word – and can conjure up countless hours in the library or on the internet, or days poring over reports and financials – this should be the foundation for many decisions you make in business. While it may sound glamorous or impulsive to say that you act on gut feel – it’s even better to combine your natural instincts with robust research into the issue at hand.
Apart from talking to people about your business idea, you can conduct market research into whether your product or service will fly. If you have the funds to engage a market research company, that’s great. But, if not, you can still get useful feedback on an informal level. For example:
* Meet with people to gauge their interest in your product or service.
* Hold focus groups where you can discuss any issues associated with your idea.
* Conduct online surveys or polls. You can do this easily with tools such as Survey Monkey or Ask Database.
The results from your research may throw up a range of issues that may impact everything from how you structure your business, how your product is delivered, your pricing – or even whether your idea is feasible at all.
Action
After you’ve done the research, it’s time to take action. The good news is that if you’ve bothered to do the research in the first place – an act that requires some planning and organisation – you will probably have the impetus to take the next step and turn your business idea into reality.
The wheels actually usually fall off in the research stage. I meet so many would-be entrepreneurs who continually talk about their Great Business Idea but never do anything about it. That’s often because the research stage is not the sexy part. They want to go straight from Great Business Idea to an entrepreneur living The Four-Hour Work Week. It doesn’t work that way – and I don’t care what anyone says, you have to put in the hard yards if you want to experience the pay-off.
In order to motivate yourself into action, it’s useful to break down what you need to do into bite-sized chunks. The obstacles appears when we have an item on our “to do” list that looks like: “Research viability of muesli bars for children”. That’s way to big. Instead, sit down with a cup of coffee for an hour and break it down. So your task lists may look like this instead:
1. Visit Dunnes to note down all muesli bar brands.
2. Look up Yellow Pages to find manufacturers of muesli bars.
3. Do online research for manufacturers of muesli bars.
4. Make appointment with nutritionist specialising in children’s diets.
5. Develop list of “must haves” in muesli bars.
6. etc
Then diarise each of those tasks – which are all small enough to be “do-able” – and make a commitment to complete them.
Commitment and belief
If you can be bothered to research and take action, then the final pillar of entrepreneurship is an unswerving belief that you can achieve what you have set out to do. The reality is that this commitment may sometimes be rocked so it’s important to create a supportive environment to buoy you through these times. How can you do that on a practical level?
1. Minimise the time you spend with naysayers.
2. Surround yourself with other enthusiastic entrepreneurs.
3. Join a mastermind group of like-minded business owners.
4. Find yourself a business mentor.
5. Read inspirational business books where you can get ideas and motivation.
Entrepreneurship is a journey. It’s one that can be filled with challenges but can also be very rewarding. Whether you simply want to open a hair salon, transform the diets of children in Ireland (through your muesli bars) or change the behaviour of some of the country’s largest companies (through your consulting) – it can be done. Just remember: If you believe you can change the world – and you act on that conviction – then, chances are, you probably will.
Boom time is over and we are slap bang in the middle of hopefully the worst recession we will ever see.
So is it time for aspiring entrepreneurs to hunker down and wait for the sun to come back out before starting a business?
Not at all.
Recession does indicate a contracting economy but it doesn’t mean that businesses across the board are shrinking and dying. Many businesses and industries buck the trend by growing through the downturn.
You can increase your chances of running one of these businesses by starting a business in an industry that tends to remain resilient, or even prospers, in economic downturns.
So which types of business are good to start in a recession?
Start a business selling essential goods or services
Most businesses are discretionary, meaning that their products and services are non-essential.
Essential items tend to be bought in roughly the same quantities whatever the economic weather. Businesses dealing in food or shelter, two of life’s most fundamental needs, tend to be resilient in an economic dowturns.
There are stark exceptions, however.
Restaurants are enormously susceptible in a recession as the difference in cost compared to eating at home is huge, so meals out are often the first thing to go when people have less money in their pocket.
And the mortgage market can seize up in tough times, like at present, where there’s a squeeze on credit. However, people always need somewhere to live so the lettings market, by contrast tends to remain stable.
Other examples of businesses bracketed in the essential category are law firms, funeral parlours, healthcare businesses, law firms, schools and home maintenance businesses.
Start a business selling guilty pleasures
And yet, somewhat paradoxically, people often increase their spending on non-essentials too, on indulgencies.
For example, Cadbury’s announced a 28% jump in profits in July, and analysts suggest it was, to an extent, because of the recession rather than despite it. In gloomier times people often turn to comfort eating and buy chocolate, ice cream and other treats to make themselves feel better.
People do tend to be more price aware, however, so the emphasis is on affordable luxury. So they’re more likely to plump for Cadbury’s Dairy Milk than Hotel Chocolat truffles.
Start a business selling budget goods
Starting a business selling budget ranges are, unsurprisingly, more prosperous in lean times.
‘Everything for a pound’ shops tend to do well. And with the credit crunch making bank loans hard to come by, pawn shops and cheque cashing shops are enjoying a spike in custom.
In contrast to restaurants, retailers selling budget food ranges are very successful.
Start a business selling goods and services used by the over-50s
They’ve got equity in their property, and they’ve got savings so their earnings rise with interest rates: over 50s have more to spend than younger age groups and they’re also more resilient in a recession.
Buy a franchise
An established franchise will invariably stand a better chance of thriving than a start-up. Many franchise brands have come through previous recessions unscathed so you can be confident they’ll have the means and savvy to do it again.
When the economy contracts some businesses inevitably go under. With their time-honed, streamlined processes and systems, franchises are usually leaner and fitter than their rivals and much less likely to fall by the wayside.
“We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.”
Warren Buffett
Company: Kids in the Kitchen and Whip It Up
Website: www.kidsinthekitchen.ie and www.whipitup.ie
Founders: Victoria Mackechnie
Age: 29
Based: Dublin
Staff Numbers: 1
Date started: November 2008
Tell us what your business does?
My business involves providing cookery classes to children and adults. The Kids in the Kitchen constitutes the main part of my business through which I work with a number of primary and secondary schools as well community centres in the Greater Dublin Area to educate children about healthy eating and equip them with practical skills to produce tasty dishes for themselves. All of these classes are practical cookery sessions where children are involved in all aspects of cooking from beginning to end. Children then bring home their dishes to share with family and friends.
The Whip It Up business which was just launched in October 2009 aims to teach adults a number of tasty easy recipes and give them new culinary ideas. Each class has a different theme from Mediterannean to Mexican and shellfish to sinful desserts. These cookery classes are demonstration and take part mostly in chq, IFSC, Dublin 1. I work with Mitchell & Son Wine Merchants who teach participants about wine pairing and how to choose different wines to complement food flavours.
Where did the idea for your business come from?
I took a year out and lived in Sydney for a while and had the chance to run children’s cookery classes there. I have always been passionate about food and cookery though and did my first course when I was 9! Starting young stood to me. By acquiring this important life skill at a young age, I feel strongly that children are equipped to make healthy eating choices for themselves.
Have you always wanted to run your own business?
Yes always. In fact I wanted to launch this business when I finished college but felt the market wasnt yet ready. Since then, the obesity epidemic among children has exploded and I think as a nation we have become alot more aware of nutrition and healthy eating, while cookery has gained enormously in popularity, particularly now that people cant afford to eat out as much!
What planning did you do before you started up?
I had already tested the market by speaking directly with schools and also had the benefit of hands on experience from Australia. I was fortunate in that I didnt have a big capital outlay in order to start the busines so was in a position to start trading immediately after setting it up.
How did you raise the money?
I used savings to start the business. However the financial challenges ahead lie in the fact that these programmes are needed most acutely among schools in disadvantaged areas so I am constantly lobbying public and private bodies to fund these cookery programmes in these areas.
What challenges have you faced how have you overcome them?
Financial challenges are always going to be a feature of running your own business. Not having a consistent steady income stream is a big change and one that takes time to get used to. Obviously having a business degree and coming from a financial background helps. You have to become a lot more self disciplined and adept at financial planning. Another challenge for me has been adapting to working by myself. I miss working as part of a team and all the interaction with work colleagues.
How have you promoted your business?
Mostly it has been word of mouth and I have been lucky enough to get some good press coverage.
What has your growth been like?
The business has grown to incorporate a wider number of schools and has expanded to run adult programmes. I soon hope to turn this one woman show into a two person show!
What’s the impact on your home life been like?
I suppose my home life and work life are now very much intertwined. There is no longer a clear delineation between the two. However, I definitely have more flexibility which is something I really value.
Twitter is poised to close a $US50 million funding round that values the microblogging startup at a staggering $US1 billion, according to TechCrunch and AllThingsD. Since closing its last venture round in February, the startup’s value has grown fourfold.
Grown, that is, in the eyes of Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists, slaves to the technology fashions for which Twitter is the leading model: real-time, micro, iPhone friendly and acquisition bait for Google. Twitter might say it’s in this for the long haul—someone is spreading word the company has $US30 million, or most of its last funding round, sitting in a bank account—but the company has proven far more adept at finessing moneyed suitors than in groping for reliable revenue streams.
Twitter’s trend hopping founders, whose project management company began their blogging company, which led to their podcasting company, which began Twitter, seem more likely to seize on the easy exit of the former rather than the long grind of the latter.
Especially when, as these charts of their past investment rounds show, they’re so very good at jacking up their price:
Company: Corkage
Website: www.corkage.ie
Founders: Stephen Dillon
Age: 33
Based: Dublin
Staff Numbers: 4
Date started: June 2009
Tell us what your business does?
www.corkage.ie is a supplier of wines for weddings primarily but also for any special occasion or function. We also provide information about the whole topic of corkage, food and wine matching etc.
Where did the idea for your business come from?
The idea came about after several requests from friends and family for advice on wedding wine. I have been interested and involved in the wine industry for years. Many of the people who conatcted me were not happy with the price and quality of wines being offered to them by hotels, venues etc. They were looking for better quality and more choice and were smart enough to realise that by organising your own wine you can save a small fortune and give your guests better wine.
Have you always wanted to run your own business?
Yes. In addition to corkage I also own an off licence and previously an internet cafe.
What planning did you do before you started up?
I did a lot of research on what hotels were charging for corkage and requested copies of wine lists. As I am already in the trade I had a good idea of what they were paying for the wines on the list. The difference convinced me that there was an opportunity to give people an alternative choice.
How did you raise the money?
Luckily the website did not require much investment. I found a great web developper who got the site up and running very quickly (www.complex.ie). Much of the required infrastructure for the business was already in place from the off licence. Raising money for the off licence is another story!
What challenges have you faced how have you overcome them?
The economic downturn was obviously a major challenge. The whole wine industry in Ireland is under massive pressure at the moment. The government raising VAT last year just as the UK government dropped their rate sent lots of people shopping up north particularily for big purchases like 200 bottles of wine!. This also created an oppoprtunity as we were able to buy lots of liquidated and bin end stock from hard pressed suppliers in the south. This meant we could find great ‘clearence’ lots for our customers. On one occasion we sourced a wine that normally sold for €20 per bottle for well under €10.,
How have you promoted your business?
Most promotion has been done through google adwords, although this can be expensive you do get pretty instant results once you use the right keywords. I have also linked up with a number of wedding websites again this reaches the target market.
What has your growth been like?
Growth has been steady, we started by supplying wine to people we knew, slowly word started spreading and enquiries and visits to the site are growing every week. We also offer free delivery and a sale or return service this has definately helped sales.
What’s the impact on your home life been like?
There has been no major impact on home life as I have been doing long hours in the off licence already. I have enjoyed updating the blog and checking the number of hits on the site. Compared to retail web based business is a dream!
The term ‘franchising’ has been used to describe many different forms of business relationships, including licensing, distributor and agency arrangements. The more popular use of the term has arisen from the development of what is called ‘business format franchising.’
Business format franchising is the granting of a license by one person (the franchisor) to another (the franchisee), which entitles the franchisee to trade under the trade mark/trade name of the franchisor and to make use of an entire package, comprising all the elements necessary to establish a previously untrained person in the business and to run it with continual assistance on a predetermined basis.
The principle is simple – some companies choose to grow, not by developing in the conventional way, but by granting a license to others to sell their product or service. There are clear advantages to this:
•You don’t have to come up with a new idea – someone else has had it and tested it, too!
•Larger, well-established franchise operations will often have national advertising campaigns and a solid trading name
•Good franchisors will offer comprehensive training programmes in sales and indeed all business skills.
•Good franchisors can also help secure funding for your investment as well as e.g. discounted bulk-buy supplies for outlets when you are in operation
•If aware that you are running a franchise, customers will also understand that you will be offering the best possible value for money and service – although you run your ‘own show’, you are part of a much larger organisation.
Who is in Control?
Each business outlet is owned and operated by the franchisee. However, the franchisor retains control over the way in which products and services are marketed and sold, and controls the quality and standards of the business.
What are the Cost Implications?
The franchisor will receive an initial fee from the franchisee, payable at the outset, together with on-going management service fees – usually based on a percentage of annual turnover or mark-ups on supplies. In return, the franchisor has an obligation to support the franchise network, notably with training, product development, advertising, promotional activities and with a specialist range of management services.
