Posts Tagged ‘entrepreneurship’
We hear from entrepreneur Caelen King on his aspirations for 2011, starting your own business and the best tips in his mind. . Read more about it here in our Stories Section. . . continue reading
Startup Networking Event with Bizspark + DCU
Calling All Startups. . . . Upcoming Free Event for Start-ups in association with Bizspark and DCU
The DCU Ryan Academy’s Propeller Accelerator Joins TechStars Network
The DCU Ryan Academy’s Propeller Accelerator Joins TechStars Network To Accelerate
Startup Businesses and Enhance Entrepreneurship in Dublin
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Ryan Academy Announces New Venture Accelerator Fund
Dublin City University’s Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship announces the establishment of a seed venture fund of 1 million for early stage technology start-up companies. continue reading
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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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.
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.
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
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.
