IS ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOR YOU?

Many people dream of being their own boss…and owning their own company. If that is one of your goals, the Small Business Administration recommends you assess if you have these characteristics and skills commonly associated with successful entrepreneurs:

Comfortable with taking risks: Do you avoid uncertainty in life at all costs? If yes, then entrepreneurship may not be the best fit for you. But if you enjoy the thrill of taking calculated risks, it may be.

Independent: Entrepreneurs have to make a lot of decisions on their own. If you find you can trust your instincts — and you’re not afraid of rejection every now and then — you could be on your way to being an entrepreneur.

Persuasive: If you enjoy public speaking, engage new people with ease and find you make compelling arguments grounded in facts, it’s likely you’re poised to make your idea succeed.

Able to negotiate: As a small business owner, you will need to negotiate everything from leases to contract terms to rates. Polished negotiation skills will help you save money and keep your business running smoothly.

Creative: Are you able to think of new ideas? Can you imagine new ways to solve problems? If you have insights on how to take advantage of new opportunities, entrepreneurship may be a good fit.

Supported by others: Before you start a business, it’s important to have a strong support system in place. If you do not have a support network of people to help you, consider finding a business mentor. A business mentor is someone who is experienced, successful and willing to provide advice and guidance.

The SBA has created these 20 questions to help ensure you’ve thought about the right financial and business details. 

DO YOU HAVE TOO MANY BUSINESS GOALS?

Worse, are you overwhelmed by your business goals?

If so, Jeff Whittle’s observations will help clarify your focus. His advice is to dumb down your business goals…literally. This excerpt from his recent contribution to the EOSWorldwide blog explains more:

“Simplicity is the antidote to complexity, and it isn’t easy to achieve. When you find yourself drowning in a plate of unachieved goals, remember the truism attributed to Albert Einstein – if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

I can promise that your business will never, ever suffer from a lack of things to be done. What it will suffer from, however, is a lack of focus and execution on the very critical few things that – if achieved – will have the biggest impact on your business. Identifying those critical few things, and then staying focused on their achievement, is the difference between great companies and floundering ones.

Here’s the key question: can you (and everyone else on your team) simply state the 3-5 most important things that you must achieve this quarter? If you can’t, you’re carrying around that plate of goals and action items that almost certainly will not get achieved for the simple reason that there are too many of them for any of them to be true priorities. Until you simplify the goals of any period down to a critical few, you will remain stuck, your tires helplessly spinning in the muck of business complexity.”

Read his full article: Too Many Business Goals Is a Very Bad Thing.

IS YOUR EMPLOYEE READY FOR A PROMOTION?

Most employees want promotions sooner, rather than later. We can all relate to that sense of urgency.

But your employee could want a promotion for reasons that could make him ineffective, warns expert Don Tinney. According to him, those reasons include:

·         Money driven—seeking the pay increase

·         Control driven—wanting to have control over others

·         Ego driven—wanting the recognition or status of the job title

·         Entitlement driven—believing he deserves it

·         Socially driven—wanting to work with friends

·         Ignorance—not understanding the entire scope of the seat

“Filling a seat simply because someone says they want it can be dangerous for many reasons,” he advises on a recent AOS Worldwide blog post. “Look and listen beyond those initial expressions of interest for indicators of the true want.”

Read his full article here: Does Your Employee Really Want That Job Promotion?