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

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

> 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.

How odd. I didn't know the government wanted teachers to have knowledge of Entrepreneurs. How can they turn the children into mindless automoton droids? In fact, being an entrepreneur goes AGAINST how the school system wants everyone to be.

In school, working with another is called cheating. Outside of school it is teamwork - and no corporation/entrepreneur is without it.

In school, having notes handy while doing certain tasks is a big No No. On the outside, it's a big No No not to have your notes handy at all times.

School is about "what job will you do?" and "what job are your training to do" and not about how to be an entrepreneur.

Anyway.

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.

Do you want feedback ON people who SAY they are entrepreneurs or feedback FROM people who ARE entrepreneurs?

First, you need to define what an entrepreneur is. And consulting my dictionary I find...

Entrepreneur: one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.

So to answer your question... a person who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise is an entrepreneur. Doing those things - organizing, managing and assuming the risk of a business or enterprise - makes someone an entrepreneur (whether they claim it or not).

WHY someone chooses to be an entrepreneur is a different matter. As Dennis said, each entrepreneur has their own reasons...

• Control of their income
• Not limited by income
• Control of their time
• Work when they want to
• Reduce risk because their income is not dependent on someone else
• Can't be "told what to do" by anyone
• More freedom - in income, time, life in general
• And a myriad of other reasons including combinations of all of the above

What other people see as risky an entrepreneur sees as more-secure. They see "working for the man" as risky. At any moment the axe could fall and you are out on the street looking for another man to work for. Hoping this time the axe won't fall for a few years.

Look at yourself... you want to be a teacher - work for someone else, most probably the government. Have you asked yourself WHY? WHY you want to work for someone else and not yourself?

You have to look deeply at both sides - the worker and the entrepreneur.

Right now, the easiest thing for you to do is copy & paste some parts of our answers, or do a little paraphrasing, and then hand that in as your "assignment completed." But that is another example of the spoonfed mentality of the government education system. You want answers spoonfed to you - and you have received some. But you will never truly understand or appreciate them unless you live them.

The qualification you seek is an example of what I was getting at when I said the school system just wants you to be a worker. Do you see it? You are taking a "course" so you can "go work for someone else."

Perhaps you can tell us... why do you want to work for someone else instead of yourself?

Michael Ross


What entrepreneurs read

> 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!

> 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

Somehow I was asked to join the local (Calcasieu Parish School, Louisiana, USA) School to Work Committee.

After 4 hours of listening to all the various reports and topics my head was about to explode. Then, the moderator went around the room asking all the different members and attendees (mostly educators) for any comments.

My comments sounded a lot like yours. I reminded them that the name of the committee was School to Work, not School to Job! That seem to get a few of them thinking. Their primary focus as educators is elementary education, secondary education, then college or trade school, then job.

I pointed out that many people would be like square pegs trying to fit round holes if they were forced to take a job. (Gee, I wish I had discovered self-employment sooner myself.)

I've also made that point when speaking at the local Chamber of Commerce and in speaking to high school students in "Future Business Leaders of America".

I hope I opened a few minds during my talks.

I knew I wasn't along in my thinking about the educational environment. Just didn't know it was the same down under.

Dennis Bevers