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Entrepreneur – Man or Machine?

BY: Andrew / 0 COMMENTS / CATEGORIES: Personal Development

In light of recent worldwide events such as 9/11 and the terrorist events in London, Paris, Brussels and recently in Las Vegas, more and more people are taking steps to improve the quality of their lives. 

One such step is to get away from the corporate world and embark on a new journey as an entrepreneur.

In fact, according to the Pew Research Center, three-in-ten U.S. jobs are held by the self-employed and the workers they hire.  That’s 44 million jobs or 30% of the national workforce.

The benefit of this is that you can be your own boss, put your ideas into action, potentially earn more and have control over your time. 

Factors such as the lack of job security and economic uncertainty also prompt individuals to take the plunge. 

What Does It Take?

So what does it take to be an entrepreneur? 

Are you born with it, or can it be taught? 

In my opinion the greatest determinant of the success of an entrepreneur is their character and their skills. 

To be an entrepreneur you have to be ambitious, you have to want to achieve, and you have to want to be successful.  You are going to make a poor start if there is no powerful driving force.

Stating your own business isn’t easy; expect several years of really hard work, it’s extremely challenging and stressful. 

It won’t feel it at the time, but when you look back you might even say it was fun. 

One word of caution, however difficult you think it will be, expect it to be a lot worse. 

The volatility and uncertainty of starting your own business is the buzz and when the point of financial stability is achieved, nothing beats that sense of achievement.

What Is It You Want?

I always consider what I hope to achieve out of every venture I get involved in. 

This would cover money or wealth, working hours, risks (if I invest in it), stress, independence, achievement, power and so on. 

I then match this to the particular project in hand and decide whether it fits the bill.

Will Your Business Survive?

Did you know that half of all businesses never survive longer than 5 years? 

You may just be unlucky; failure can be through no fault of the entrepreneur. 

Should this ever happen to you, you need to assess the situation, be honest to yourself about the contributory factors and move on. Learning from your experience is crucial as nobody gets it right first time, or even every time.

Can You Do It?  Yes You Can!

A good entrepreneur must contain all the skills possessed by a salesman, an accountant, an inventor – and then some.  But none of this even matters if you have this one skill…

This can be encompassed in one word – passion. 

Without it, you haven’t got any chance of achieving anything remarkable. 

It’s not to say that you can’t make a profit without passion, but extraordinary results comes only through extraordinary drive and determination.

To improve your chances of success there are three elements that you should consider:

  1. Identify your strengths and weaknesses and try to overcome any shortcomings.

  2. Ensure that the market has the necessary growth potential for your idea to work.

  3. There is enough Cash to cover your needs and there is also a secondary source of cash available should growth be slower than expected.

  4. As with all factors in life, planning is the key, ‘if you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.’

I wish you all the best of luck in your endeavors, if these steps are followed you stand a great chance of success!

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Do You Have A Doctor On Board?

BY: Andrew / 0 COMMENTS / CATEGORIES: Business Planning

According to the USA Today, 4 in 5 US businesses will not be around to celebrate their first-year anniversary. As you can imagine, businesses go under for a variety of reasons; lost orders, poor forecasts, bad or no controls, no cash, litigation, the list is endless. Where there’s a business activity, there’s a potential reason for failure. No business performs according to plan each and every day so why doesn’t the owner see the warning signs? They usually do, but in the case of the businesses that I have been advising, they either ignore them, hoping that they would go away, or they simply see them far too late. Addressing The Cause And acting isn’t good enough if you don’t address the cause of the problem. Ploughing more of your own personal funds into the pot to sure-up the cashflow won’t help. You must reduce your outflows because the problem will return to haunt you in weeks or months to come! Is cash the first of the alarm bells? I would argue that it isn’t. Your staff should alert you where there’s a problem, for example credit control may alert you that a customer is not paying, or your accountant may notify you that profit margins have fallen. Not Getting Paid How can you remain cash positive if you are not receiving the money you are owned, or making enough profits in the first place? OK, so you have a problem and several months later it’s still there, you take your head out of the sand and decide to do something about it. You ask yourself “have I got the necessary skills or experience to resolve the issue?” The clock is ticking, you can’t delay paying your suppliers, you’ve had final notices and more importantly pay-day for your staff is just around the corner, so what do you do? I would suggest you turn to a professional, a specialist like a company doctor, who has the experience to help you turn the ship around before it runs aground. There will be some of you out there thinking, I have managed this business for years; it has grown from nothing to where it is today, why do I need help? Outside Help The simple answer is that at certain stages of any business’s life it will need outside help, whether it is a loan to purchase new equipment, legal advice, who knows… No-one will question what you have done, the past does not matter, what is important is that your business has a future. Imagine on the football pitch, a player gets injured, he doesn’t treat himself, he calls on his medical team to ensure that his career and future is not jeopardised and that is what you may need to do. There are many reasons why each of us decided to run our own businesses, don’t let pride get in the way of seeing it flourish and grow.

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Will A Robot Steal Your Job?

BY: Andrew / 0 COMMENTS / CATEGORIES: Business Strategy

The world is changing. The world’s largest taxi company, Uber, owns no cars.  The world’s largest hotel chain, AirBnB, owns no hotels.  The world’s largest media company, Facebook, creates no content.  And the world’s largest retailer, Alibaba, has no inventory. We’re living in an era of endless innovation, where century old companies are being replaced overnight. These are the words of Jay Samit, author of Disrupt Yourself, from a recent TED Talk. And it’s true. In fact, due to the ever-increasing speed of technological development we too are being replaced…By machines! According to an Oxford University study, nearly half (47%) of US jobs are at risk of being automated.  But it’s not just US jobs that are at risk. This is a global phenomenon. In the UK, that figure is 35%, with 69% of jobs in India and 77% of Chinese jobs are at risk! As recently as June 2017, the Bank of England’s chief economist predicted that 80 million US and 15 million UK jobs could be taken over by robots. Gone are the days of a job for life! You’re most likely sitting there and thinking “that is not going to happen to me” and I hope that you’re right.  But what it you’re wrong?  What if your employer is already looking at plans to automate your job? I’m pretty sure that typists thought that their jobs were safe when the computer was launched.  I bet it is what switchboard operators said before the automatic exchange was introduced.  And it is probably what taxi drivers and are saying right now despite Uber developing driverless cars! But it’s not just robots that you’ve got to worry about… GE has made a working jet engine using a 3D printer and this technology will change the manufacturing industry forever.  You can even order your Big-Mac and fries even without talking to someone, so you fast-food workers better beware too! Are You Safe? What should you do about it? You could bury your head under the duvet and pretend that it’s not happening.  But what if you go to work and the company announces that you’re gonna be laid off? How painful would that be?  Could you continue to pay the mortgage or the rent if you were out of work for say 3 months?  How would you afford the bills?  And how humiliating would it feel if you were no longer be able to provide for your family? You can do something about this so that you’re never in this situation. Of course, if you’re certain that your job is safe, then there’s nothing to worry about, but if your job isn’t 100% secure, then read on… Protect Yourself Before It’s Too Late! I know it’s scary, but you can do something… The first thing that you need to do is to make the decision to take action.  You need to decide to not be a victim, not to let circumstances dictate your life, but get on the front foot and go for what you want and more importantly what you deserve. Imagine A Better Life Imagine a future… where you’re living in a nice house, enjoying lovely holidays and driving the car of your dreams. Think about your family… imagine being able to give them what they want without worrying about the cost. How great would that feel? But you’re probably wondering how? Starting your own business is one of the best ways that gives you instant job security, control over your career, your income and your future.  We’ve never seen a better time to start your own business than we do today! Live Your Dream Starting your own home-business is what dreams are made of! You’ll instantly change your life forever… You’ll have so much freedom (you can work from anywhere) You’ll have so much power (your business can instantly go global) You’ll have so much wealth (you can make a fantastic income!) But let’s be clear, this isn’t for everyone.  If you’re lazy and don’t want to do any work, then you’re more suited to working for someone else. As Les Brown once said, “you don’t get in life what you want, you get in life what you are” so if you are hard-working, willing to make the commitment and put in the time and the effort to grow your business, then maybe this is right for you.

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If Life Was Like Baseball, Who Would You Be?

BY: Andrew / 0 COMMENTS / CATEGORIES: Personal Development

  If life were like baseball, would you be sitting in the bleachers (stands) saying to yourself “I don’t think that I could even hit the ball” or, “what if I missed and I’m hurt by a pitch.”  Would you be the one finding all the reasons not to try?

Or would you be at the plate swinging as hard as you can at every pitch, trying to knock the ball out of the park and hit a home run only to finally strike out? Or would you be the one who has bunted the ball, scrambled to first base, stolen second base and are just waiting for your moment to slide into third? For the past 18 months I have been trying to be this third guy and I am grateful to say that yesterday I launched a training business, where I will donate all my profits to charity and my SEO business is now ranked #1, #2, #3 and #4 on Google. So what am I saying is this, don’t worry about what you don’t have, just focus on what you need in order to be successful and for me, this is the love and the support of my wife Louise and my daughter Chloe.

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