Entrepreneurials

G'day. I am studying to become a teacher (early Childhood) and am in my last year. I am currently taking a course called The Entrepreneurial Professional. I found this website and was hoping that I could get some feedback on people who say they are entrepreneurs and what makes them entrepreneurial. If you have any thoughts on this topic i would love to hear from you. ta muchly

I'm sure everyone has their own thoughts on specific points of being an entrepreneur, but it basically boils down to being a "Risk Taker".

Most people are cut out to be employees. They need the security of having a job with a "guaranteed" paycheck. They may also require supervision and daily guidance to fulfill that job, but not necessarily.

On the other hand, the entrepreneur prefers to chart their own course, and is willing to forego the income security offered by a job, to build their own source of income. Some may go with an established system, franchise, or other bizopp, while many will create their own business.

Some would reject the idea of a franchise buyer as being a risk taker as they are investing $20,000 to $500K or more to limit their risk, buying into an established system, but they are still risking their investment, with no sure guarantees.

Different entrepreneurs will have various reasons why they take the entrepreneurial route. Some are simply motivated by the prospects of earning a higher income, while others are looking for more satisfaction from their career.

Still others may prefer the total independence from having someone looking over their shoulder, depending on their self-motivation and discipline to stick to their work. The freedom to choose your own schedule is a component of the desire for indepence.

In reality, it is a combination of the various motivators, with each entrepreneur having different priorities on the income, independence, job satisfaction, etc.

Having been full-time self-employed since 1987, I probably am unfit for a regular job for more than a short period.

After having been self-employed for so long, the guarantees and perks that come with employee status appear to be more enticements to cause workers to "settle" for less.

That fits in with Maslov's theories of human need for security, basic necessities, etc. As long as the worker has his basic needs met, he or she will accept what they are given. They trade their freedom for the guarantees of the job.

JMO!

Dennis Bevers




My home-based business in the entrepreneurial realm!

Hi,

I'm an entrepreneur because I want to sell my time at retail rather than wholesale.

Plus, I'm a weird hermit who doesn't like face-to-face interaction. One, in fact, who despises it, shuns it, abhors it!!

Best,

- Boyd

> Hi,

> I'm an entrepreneur because I want to sell
> my time at retail rather than wholesale.

> Plus, I'm a weird hermit who doesn't like
> face-to-face interaction. One, in fact, who
> despises it, shuns it, abhors it!!

> Best,

> - Boyd

I wouldn't bet against Boyd. The more I read this board the more impressed I am with people like Boyd, Micheal Ross, Dien, Gordon, Don Alm and many others. All great thinkers and nice people too!
Sincerely,
Steve Ski




Wealth, Science, and the "Law of Attraction"

I have one associate who I first made contact with by contracting with her to build my new website a couple years ago.

After learning a good deal about my products and the industry, she decided to expand her options and become an associate.

She was doing her webdesign work from home, with little or no face-to-face contact with clients.
She doesn't consider herself a salesperson, and definitely not a sales professional.

So, she created her own distinctive website featuring the promotional advertising products. Six months after getting it up and running, she shut down her webdesign business as it was interferring with her new income source.

At the end of her first year, she finished 18th nationally, out of 3400 dealers across the US, selling over a quarter million in her first year from a cold start.

After 18 months she only has two local customers in the Dallas metro area. Those are both friends she new before she started. All of her other customers are online buyers who she conducts business with via the internet, phone, and fax.

So, I guess she's only a hermit in respect to her business. It wouldn't have been possible a couple decades ago.

Dennis Bevers




Sell promotional advertising online or off as an independent agent!

DNO = Do Not Open!

dno
> I wouldn't bet against Boyd. The more I read
> this board the more impressed I am with
> people like Boyd, Micheal Ross, Dien,
> Gordon, Don Alm and many others. All great
> thinkers and nice people too!
> Sincerely,
> Steve Ski

> I'm a weird hermit who doesn't like
> face-to-face interaction. One, in fact, who
> despises it, shuns it, abhors it!!

That statement reminds me Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy. I believe the last book - Good Bye And Thanks For All The Fish.

In that book they (the leaders of various countries and planets) would visit an old hermit. To you and I he was absent minded and even dim. He would walk around talking to himself as if no one was there. And the visitors would take his mumbling as answers to their questions.

For instance, he might have been doing a crossword puzzle with a blunt pencil. He would look at the pencil and exclaim "it needs sharpening." Which his visitors would take as an answer to one of their questions, maybe about what to do with military training or some such thing.

It was quite a funny part of the book - if you like that kind of humour.

Michael Ross

Perhaps I'm independent and entrepreneurial because I prefer less risk.

Yup, you read that right.

Being in business for myself ties my fortunes to management I believe in, doing a job I believe in. There is little such security in the corporate world.

Being independent helps me spread out economic risk. In a corporate environment, I might work on behalf of a few clients (or even just one), and my job security would depend on a long chain of people between me and those key clients. On my own, I can work for more clients, of more sizes, in more industries, and in more locations. I'm in direct contact with each of them, which improves communication and reduces screw-ups ... and risk.

When I see a business opportunity, I can move on it instantly, instead of making recommendations via internal memo and waiting for the corporate machine to slooowwwwly ease into gear.

I can select work partners I know and trust and value, from start to finish. That should be true in a corporate environment, but it's often not the case.

Yup. For my money, and for my situation, there are few career moves riskier than joining a corporate environment. I can sleep at night unworried by what co-workers might be doing or not doing, and I wake up excited, truly excited, about getting into my office.


John Kuraoka, freelance advertising copywriter

Hi John,

That's an interesting perspective - becoming an entrepreneur because there's less risk...

I think it's certainly true for some people - that entrepreneurship actually decreases their risk. And perhaps it's more and more true as the years go by....

Once upon a time a corporate job was one you had for life. Well, until you hit retirement age and got your retirement gift watch for all those decades you put in. (I was just listening to the Bob Newhart sketch about this from the 1960s - it's hilarious.) :)

However, those times seem to be long gone. Now, you can be out of a job any time one of those "higher up" deems it necessary to do some cost-cutting.

In such an environment, perhaps it is safer to take your own future into your own hands, rather than trust the whim of any new manager that might come in.

One thing I've also noticed about many successful serial entrepreneurs (those who have successfully started multiple businesses) is that they take active steps to reduce their risk of a venture.

Many people go into a business opportunity thinking only of the upside - perhaps this is our human tendency towards optimism. Many successful serial entrepreneurs also look at the downside - how much could they lose if the business venture flops? And - how can they reduce the risk of that happening?

In his recent post, Boyd mentioned the movie "Heist" - and how Gene Hackman had a Plan A, a Plan B, if that didn't work there was a Plan C, and if that didn't work even a Plan D. Eventually, it was Plan D that worked! I haven't seen the Heist, but that's entrepreneurial thinking (though from the title of the movie it sounds like he's not applying it to entrepreneurship!).

I think you ALWAYS need a Plan B... and a Plan C and D are even better!

I agree that with this kind of thinking, your risks are reduced!

- Dien Rice


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