How to Write a Comprehensive Business Plan

One of the most daunting tasks for most small business owners is creating a business plan. Sitting down, staring at a blank page or computer screen is never easy, and even less so when you are creating a document that will govern, to some degree, the path of your business for the next few years. However, there are a few things that can make the process a little easier:

• Unless you are using your business plan to apply for finance, it’s more of a personal road map.

o This is to ensure that you know at least somewhat where you are going, and have a clue as to the way to get there

• Even if you are submitting your business plan for funding consideration, it does not have to be complex or confusing.

o In fact, the simpler you can make your vision seem (and back it up) the more effective your business plan is likely to be

• Understand that your business plan is NOT intended to be written in stone – it’s a working, living document that you alter as the dynamics of your business changes.

Now that we’ve clarified those business plan fundamentals, let’s get into the nitty gritty of how to actually write one.

Spend Some Time Brainstorming

Before you even put pen to paper on your business plan, it’s a good idea to sit down and make notes. Write down anything that occurs to you which may apply to your business. Don’t restrict yourself to the sections or template of a standard business plan; just allow your ideas to flow onto the paper. This will form the underlying basis of your final document, and will help you solidify the content to include in your plan from a holistic perspective. Once you’ve gathered all your thoughts on paper, you’re ready to start writing the plan.

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary of your business plan is pretty much exactly what it says – it’s a summary of the information contained in the rest of the document. Although it is short (around two pages), it’s the most important part of your business plan, and should be written last – after you have covered all the other sections of your plan. The reason for this is that potential funders and investors, who are extremely busy and have limited bandwidth, will NOT read your entire plan. To be honest, they will probably read just this part of your business plan to figure out whether to schedule a first meeting with you or not. Therefore, your executive summary needs to be a knockout!

2. Business Overview

In the business overview section of your business plan, you will cover the idea behind your business and the legal formation it become. For instance, you might be starting an online business that sells pet products. This is the section where you will cover that, as well as outlining what legal form the business will take, were they company is based, etc.

3. Management

Anyone who is seriously considering investing in, or funding your business, will want to know who is behind the idea. They’ll essentially be asking themselves “who will be steering the business from business plan to market success?” In this section of your business plan, outline who the key players in the business are going to be (along with their resumes), as well as detailing the management structure of the business. Use this section of your plan to assure investors that you and your team are the best people for the job, but don’t lie! If you’re lacking in a particular area, for instance, accounting, indicate how you plan to address the issue – for instance, by outsourcing the function. Remember – no one is good at everything!

4. Your Market

Anyone who is considering investing in your business will want to know that there is, in fact, a market for your product/service. Even if you are self funding, you need to know who your target consumer will be! That means examining both the potential demographic your business is aiming for as well as the overall industry landscape. Market research will also help you to avoid costly mistakes. For example, if you are planning to open a fast food restaurant, but the area you have chosen already has five, there’s a good chance you need to rethink your strategy, right?

5. Sales and Marketing Strategy

Once you have covered WHO you are going to sell to, you need to be clear about HOW you plan to do it.

• Are you advertising to the general public, or to business?
• Will you leverage only traditional advertising methods, or will you incorporate technology?
• Will you have a sales force?
• What will your USP be, and what will set you apart from your competitors?

All of this information will help you to gain a foothold in the market while you are starting out. If you continue to build on the above, it will be a very worthwhile step toward ensuring the success of your business over an extended period of time.

6. Financial Statements and Projections

Easily the scariest part of preparing a business plan (for most entrepreneurs) is constructing the financial statements and projections. However, there are plenty of free online resources that can help you. There are an abundance of templates that will provide a framework for creating a clear financial picture of where you are right now, what you need to get started, and what your sales and profits will be in the short-term. Alternatively, you could hire an accountant to compile your information into a financial plan. Based on my experience, in the early start-up days, it’s always best to be engaged in every aspect of the business – there’s nothing worse than trying to present a business plan to investors and not understanding the numbers.

7. SWOT Analysis

Yet another aspect of the business plan that scares many entrepreneurs is the SWOT analysis. This acronym simply means an analysis of your business in terms of:

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats

Spend some time with a sheet of paper for each of the above, and list your ideas. Then simply transfer them to your business plan, and expound upon them with detailed explanations as to how you’re either going to mitigate or capitalize on each of them.

8. Supporting Documentation

This is the section of your business plan where you can supply any other documentation that is relevant to your company or which your readers may find interesting. Maybe you are applying for growth funding, and your company or product has won an award – include a copy. Or maybe you operate in a highly specialized environment that requires certification – include yours here. This section can have a substantial impact on how your business plan is received from a risk mitigation perspective.

Take Your Time, and Treat Your Business Plan as a Learning Tool

As you can probably now see, the concept behind your business plan is not that difficult or complicated.

Yes, building a business plan can be a process that takes some time, but it is an exercise that will help you to gain a clearer picture of your company. Furthermore, a great plan will help you to convince potential investors and funders that you are worth the risk.

Think of your business plan as your sales pitch for your business on paper – invest time in making it great.

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How to Start a Business with Little or No Money

Do you think you need a lot of money to start a business? You don’t! I’ve started eight businesses with less than $1000 each. These are the tricks I use.

You Don’t Need Everything from Day One

Don’t feel like your business has to look like a “real business” from day one.

• You don’t need an office.
• You don’t need to incorporate from day one.
• You don’t need fancy business cards, a fax machine or that desk you really like.

People can often become distracted by the things mentioned above and lose focus on what matters. Concentrate on selling and then selling some more. That’s all you should be working on at the very beginning.

Use Relationship Marketing to Your Advantage

This is the most important lesson that I’ve learned in my career as an entrepreneur, so please pay attention. The best kind of marketing is called “relationship marketing” and it’s free. How does it work?

1. Find the people that have access to your audience.
2. Offer them a commission for referring business to you.
3. Let them market your company at no risk to you.

Let’s say you offer city tours in London. Go to all the hotels in the city, talk to the front desk staff at each place and tell them what you do. They have access to millions of travelers and that’s your target audience. Pay the front desk clerks a commission for each guest they send your way. This is risk-free and extremely effective.

Do As Much as You Can Yourself

Design your own business cards, build your own website, and write your own marketing copy. These won’t look as great as work done by professionals, but it’s free and fast. Once you’ve sold a few thousand dollars worth of products or services, you can always re-do your website, business cards and marketing copy using experts.

Good Enough is Good Enough

There’s a group of people that struggle more than anybody else when it comes to starting a business with no money: the perfectionists. They can’t stand good business cards; they need great business cards. They can’t stand using a template for a website; they want a custom-made site. They can’t work with a web-based application that’s $5 a month because it doesn’t have all the features they want. They don’t leverage existing products, they need stuff that is customized for them, and that can be very expensive.

Have Contractors, not Employees

Having contractors has many advantages:

• You can stop working with them when you don’t need them anymore or if they’re not good at what they do.
• They don’t need a desk or office space.
• When work is slow, they get paid less. When there’s a lot of work, they make more money. Try that with an employee.

Pay for Results

It’s OK to have some people on retainers, but make sure that most of their income is tied to results. If they bring you a lot of business, they should make a lot of money. After all, you’ll be making a lot of money too, so it’s only fair that you share it with those that help you achieve your goals.

Be Smart About Your Inventory

These are two great pieces of advice I learned from my mentor:

• Produce on demand. When you receive an order, collect payment and then manufacture the product. By doing this your working capital will come from your customers instead of your own funds.
• Be the middle man. Instead of producing your own products, buy them at a discount from someone else and sell them at retail price. The profit margin will be smaller but this is a lot less risky. Once you’re in a better financial situation, you can start producing your own products.

Barter as Much as You Can

Very few people barter these days, but bartering is extremely powerful. If you have something other people want, try to barter for their services. You might not get the best expert in the industry to work with you, but whomever you get will be good enough.

Leverage Other People’s Businesses

You should take advantage of the retail locations, distribution channels and manpower that other companies pay for. For example, if you sell t-shirts, opening your own retail store will be way more expensive than selling your t-shirts through other people’s stores. Let them carry your products. Use their salespeople, their retail space and their distribution channels.

Bonus Tip: Don’t Quit Your Job Yet!

Having to make money by tomorrow in order to be able to buy groceries is no fun. I know it because I’ve been there; several times. Don’t quit your job yet. Work on your business in your free time. Grow it without taking stupid shortcuts because you’re desperate for money. Once you’re getting a decent income from your business, you can quit your job and work on your business full-time.

What other tips do you have for low- or no-budget startups?  Share your comments below!

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Learn Strategies in Convincing People to Loan You Money for Your Startup

The funding problem is one that all entrepreneurs face. Without money to start your business, your options are very constrained and growth could take eons longer than it would with the help of an investor. If you don’t have the means to self-fund, you should begin polishing your pitch to investors immediately, but without proper etiquette and requisite plans you could come off looking desperate and unprepared. The following tips will help you look more credible, serious, and promising to potential funding sources.

Build a Prototype

Let’s face it: talk is cheap. Anyone can have a “great idea” that sounds like a real winner on paper, but no amount of talk is ever as impressive as using the real thing. TechRepublic warns against spending too much time and effort on the functionality of the prototype. They recommend that a prototype should be an empty shell of an application that does little more than visually represent your current vision.

The purpose of the prototype is to get it in front of your prospective investors fast and let them critique it. If you invest too much time in programming the technical back-end, you might end up having to scrap a lot of your work when the investor submits changes he or she want to see before writing you a check.

Identify a Clear Target Market

Too often investors meet people who have grandiose new ideas that they are sure the world will want, but can’t specify who in particular will use it. Believe it or not, a product without a market is like a rowboat without oars – practically useless. Investors know it, too. “It’s a big red flag when someone outlines the size of the market-multibillion dollars-but doesn’t clearly articulate a plan for how the idea will meet an unmet need in the marketplace,” says Aaron Keller, an adjunct professor of marketing at the University of St. Thomas.

Dedicate a significant amount of time putting yourself into the shoes of your future customer. What problems do they have? How does this product solve them? How can you communicate the value of your product to them? Understand as much about your market as possible and communicate this knowledge to your investor.

Seek Help with Your Business Plan

If you plan to seek funding from a professional investor (such as a venture capitalist, or a small business bank loan) you will need a dynamite business plan before you even walk through the door. No amount of crafty salesmanship or product hype will get the job done with these folks – they’ve heard it all before. The problem is that you’re not a professional business plan writer, you just know your product and want to get started developing it.

That is why the Small Business Association (SBA) offers free online business plan consulting. Their toolkit offers everything you need to complete an attractive business plan quickly, from essential inclusions to formatting guidelines. There is even an interactive online workshop to help you ensure that you learn all the tricks and tips for writing to investors.

Define Your Team’s Roles and Credentials

Behind every great company is a talented team that can combine specific skills to create the magic that drives their sales. Investors know that the success of a new business is as much about the people turning the wheel as it is about the wheel itself. Before seeking funding, write a brief biographical outline of the credentials and roles of your core team members, making sure to include all professional certifications, work experience, and educational merits that apply.

Design Clear Return on Investment Figures

An important component of your business plan that every experienced investor needs to see is your return on investment outline. Specifically, this section explains how the investor stands to benefit from your company. What percentage of profit is he or she entitled to, how soon do you expect to reach profitability, and how long will it take him or her to gain their investment total back? Considering that these are likely the biggest questions on the mind of anyone you ask for money, it is important that your ROI figures are backed by research and show a positive outcome for the investor.

Decide On Your Exit Strategy

New entrepreneurs are so excited to begin their businesses that the concept of an exit strategy is usually the furthest thing from their minds, but it is an important aspect that deserves attention. For those unaware, an exit strategy is how you plan to leave your business in the future. Some envision a life-long company that they will work at until retirement while others plan to build the business up and sell it off for a big pay-out.

It’s tempting to put off this decision for later, but StartUpNation points out that the exit strategy can actually shape the business right from the start. “If…you plan to exit your business and transform your equity into cash through a sale, merger or IPO, you need to prepare for that every step along the way,” they explain. “You’ll need to build value and equity in your company by creating unique products, services, relationships and distribution channels, building an intellectual property portfolio and expanding your customer base.”

Try Approaching Friends And Family First

Often, when entrepreneurs think about funding, their mind immediately focuses professional investors and neglects an alternative possibility. Before calling the bank, consider talking to your friends and family about investing in your company. Consider that you have a reputation with the people closest to you, and they surely want to see you succeed. New investors are fine, but they are a much harder sell because they see you strictly as a business proposition.

Tonia Papke, president and founder of MDI Consulting, agrees. “Family and friends are great sources of financing. These people know you have integrity and will grant you a loan based on the strength of your character.”

Justify Every Dollar of Capital

Deciding on an amount to ask for is one of the most difficult steps in planning funding. Carl Showalter, founder of an early-stage venture capital firm known as Opus Capital says that proposing a reasonable amount of funding is a skill many new entrepreneurs lack. “It’s surprising how often I meet with first-time entrepreneurs who tell me they need $5 million. Not many companies need that amount in their first round of funding.”

If you want to increase your chances of getting the money you need, keep the estimates conservative and justify every dollar. Never name a high figure just because it sounds like you’d be financially set for a while, this is inappropriate. Instead, create a comprehensive expense report that explains exactly how the money will be used to grow the business.

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How to Choose the Right Colors For Your Brand

Ten years ago, Heinz  unveiled a new type of ketchup that became an immediate success.  It sold seven million bottles in its first seven months and gained international attention.  It became so popular that when it sold out of some supermarkets, people actually auctioned it off on eBay. So what was so special about this ketchup? Did it taste better? Not at all. Was it made out of better ingredients? Nope.

There was one difference. It was green.

Now, consider the story of Crystal Pepsi, a clear cola that debuted in 1992. Though the soft drink tasted like regular Pepsi, it seemed that most people didn't react well to the idea of drinking a clear cola. After lackluster sales, the product was discontinued after only a year.

The message is clear enough: the choice in color for your product and its marketing materials matter.

Choosing the Best Color for Your Brand: It's not Just an Artistic Decision

Research has shown that color influences our emotions in a variety of ways, but perhaps most importantly, it's the first sensory touch point with a customer or client. "The first point of interaction is shaped by the color, and color is the most memorable sense," says Leslie Harrington, the executive director of The Color Association and a color consultant. "Before anything else, they see color."

Harrington, who wrote a Ph.D. thesis titled Color Strategy: Leveraging Color to add and Extract Values for Products and Brands, urges her clients not to think of color as an artistic choice or preference, but rather a grounded business decision. 

"Color has been one of those things that's been left up to the designer to select something," she says. "The CEOs or management say 'oh I can’t do that, I’m not artistic.' But my argument is that it's not about being artistic – it's not any different than making any other strategic decision for your business."

Case studies have shown that a consumer's decision to purchase products can range from anywhere between 60 and 80 percent based on the product's color.  Color has the unique ability to make or break the success of a product, Harrington notes. "It doesn’t cost you any more to make the right color decision for your product. But if you choose the wrong color, from the onset, you’re not going to communicate what you want to your customer.” In other words, if you get it wrong, it can really impact the overall performance of your company.

Choosing the Best Color for Your Brand: Color Selection

Color is contextual. For example, you might buy a shampoo that's bright orange, but you're probably unlikely to buy a car in that same color. So when thinking about a color for your product or marketing materials, it's important to research the typical choices of color among your competitors, and understand what a particular color is trying to communicate to a customer.

"Go into the store and take a critical look at what colors are there," says Jill Morton, a color consultant and author of a series of e-books about color.  

Morton explains that point-of-purchase sales (e.g. walking down the aisle of a pharmacy), are difficult because your product will sit on the shelf with at least 20 or 30 other products. Sometimes choosing a color that stands out can help. "Garnier Fructis did something quite brilliant with their choice of that green," she says. "You go to a shop, and that stands out."

But choosing an unlikely color can backfire, too. For example, "everything in contact solutions is blue or green, but if you put a product on the shelf that is red, no one is going to buy it," she says.

Most importantly, it's important to distinguish whether the color serves to imply a certain function (e.g. blue is clean, healthy, safe) or if the color implies a certain idea (e.g. neon green is fun, adventurous, different). Once you've determined what it is that your target customer is looking for, you can best decide on the color to help them find it.

Choosing the Best Color for Your Brand: Keeping it Real

Though your company may want your product to reflect a certain idea by a choice in color, it may not be that simple. "Consumers know intuitively if the color and brand connect, and if it's authentic," says Harrington. "If it doesn't connect, it turns them off."  Sometimes, companies think that finding a "popular" color or one that customers "like" will help sales. But this is rarely the case.  "Whether its trendy or not, or whether they like it or not, won't necessarily matter as much as if it’s authentic."

Harrington points out the following example. When Volkswagen came out with the new Beetle, most of the billboards pictured a neon green Beetle, which was a car color few people had seen before. However, that color was authentic to the ideas VW was trying to communicate: rebirth, renewal, and bringing an old icon back to make it new. "It really resonated with the customer," she says. "It allowed VW to communicate in the ad what they were all about – even if it just brought the customer in the store to buy the black or the silver."

This example also illustrates another element of color psychology, something she calls the "pink purse syndrome," namely, you put a pink purse in the window to get customers to come into the store where they buy the black one.

Choosing the Best Color for Your Brand:  When you Need a Change

Sometimes, changing a company color is necessary to indicate the company is still modern and progressive. When freshening up logos or changing a product's color, there are a number of things to consider, says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute and international color expert.  "You have to think about whether or not you want to retain some of the past, or completely do away with it," she says.

There are a couple of ways to do this. One is to scrap the color entirely. However, this isn't always the best option. Rather than get rid of all the equity you've built with a certain color, it's sometimes best to hold on to one color, and consider altering the accent color, says Eiseman.  "Most companies want to hold on to the equity and goodwill of their image, and color can certainly do that: maintaining some of the color but adding something new as a secondary color to refresh the image."

A good example of the need to change colors is Kodak, Harrington says, because they needed to move from being a film business in the minds of consumers, to a digital business.  "Since yellow was so iconic with the product, they went to red," she says. "They wanted to signal to the customer that the focus of the company had changed."

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3 Mental Preparations for Opening Your Own Business

The phrase, “It’s a cold, cold world out there,” is an American classic.  The main driver for the phrase’s popularity is that, it actually is a cold, cold world out there.   It’s not a firm rule, though typically business lends itself to the thought that there is an inverse relationship between risk and reward.

Well, the more rewards that you actively pursue, the colder the temperature is going to get.  These are not tangible concepts; rather they should lay an understanding that the aforementioned theories are usually spot-on, and this is what you will be dealing with.  In a nutshell, mentally prepare yourself for the uphill physical and mental battle that will constantly be waged against you via both external and internal forces.

Ask any basic office manager – it’s pretty warm making a $1,200 weekly paycheck.  Also, there is nothing wrong with any bit of labor, regardless of how much it pays.  If it’s honest, in my eyes, it’s respectable.

As the business makes its first headway and you are away from the mother paycheck for about a month, the warmth slowly fades as you get deeper into opening your own entity.  There’s no turning back, however.  Take the jacket off, feel the chill, and simply stop reflecting on that guaranteed paycheck.  That was a different life.  Instead, envision the possibility of a $20,000 weekly profit intake that could not be achieved via a puffy jacket, a scarf and gloves.  Then, begin working your way to that paycheck.

With the opening remarks made, listed below, you will find some common psychological and life changes that encompass opening one’s own business.  These are to inform, not to scare, though to simultaneously be realistic.

You Will Second Guess Yourself – It’s Part of Human Nature

If you are mentally prepared, or at least anticipate and recognize the pending self-doubt that rears its ugly head from time to time, then you are very much ahead of the entrepreneurial pack.  However, before you open your business, take some time to fully embrace and eagerly anticipate the fact that there will be upsides a.k.a. times that you feel like you could conquer the world.

Conversely, there will be downsides when you feel that you couldn’t sell a free sports car to somebody out of gas.  More or less, this psychological factor is “what it is.”  Go with full confidence, and also go in with full confidence that self-doubt arises, you’re going to be able to swiftly recognize and squash the hindered thoughts.  Work hard enough and become good at what you do and the following becomes the God’s Honest Truth: it’s always darkest before….

The Computer Is Going To Be Your New Best Friend

Before you quit your day job, make sure that you have saved enough money for a very nice, functional computer.  Personally, I swear by MACs and they’re easy to use, but prior to purchasing the new machinery, understand that you are buying your new best friend.   The mentality that goes with a brand new computer upon firing up a brand new company is much more positive than starting with old equipment.  No mental excitement.

Think of it as the equivalent of your pet, only a little more advanced.  You must have the mentality that this new piece of machinery is all that matters for 12 hours each day.  If you’re not prepared to sit at a computer that long, find one of the few businesses to start that don’t require heavy, heavy internet work.

Try to save a few hundred dollars and use an old, outdated piece of equipment, and a single virus from a far-off land, can make your new organization go near belly-up.  As an animal lover myself, I prefer to adopt older pets as they need the homes more, but the same rules need not apply for the screen and, subsequent hardware attached to your keyboard.  You’re going to be staring at her all day and night, make sure that your prom date is pretty.

Getting A Mentor Is Great, But In the End…

Finding a good mentor is difficult, but rewarding and many swear by finding one, but it is not all that easy.  Moreover, there is a huge misconception that a mentor can make or, otherwise break your business.  Simply not true; unless you become a slave to every word and action that the mentor says and you become dependent, one of two things will happen:

1. They won’t have the time to provide all this guidance.

2.  You will get, for lack of a better term, annoying and turn the individual off.

I, at a time, was lucky to have a strong mentor by the name of Harvey Cohen, but was unlucky enough to see him die of cancer.  The only difference in my mentor is that he was extended family from my sister-in-law’s side.  Still, I could not always run to him for advice, as he was busy and, I was not the first and foremost thing on his mind.

As a new entrepreneur, you are consistently going to be referred back to the “cold, cold world” reference.  Don’t heavily reply upon a mentor; instead use them when advice is direly needed.  Again, bear in mind to never be overly needy.  Go into the business with the mentality that it is you against the world and think of a great mentor as a gift from the heavens, not something that is owed to you.

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Five Mistakes to Avoid While Doing a Startup

Many of us who have either started our own firms or are in the process of doing so, would agree that trial and error is a good way to learn as we tread the entrepreneurial path. It works best if we are quick to grasp the learning and pledge never to make it again. However, here are few mistakes, which could be avoided early on.

1. Don’t ignore your family and friends: As an entrepreneur, it is normal to get too busy working on your idea — raising funds, meeting prospects, traveling. But that does not mean you start to behave like you are running on a result-oriented treadmill and end up ignoring your loved ones. Support of friends and family is important for your venture and you must value that. It is all right to sometimes take phone calls of your daughter in the middle of business meetings. Nothing wrong in allocating a day in a week for family or showing up at every parent-teacher meeting at your son’s school, or picking up your spouse from work. Did you remember to wish your best friend on her birthday? By making efforts, no matter how small, you would soon realize that you have their full support in doing a successful startup.

2. Don’t ignore your health: Taking your health for granted is a bad idea. In the rush to make things happen with your startup, you could be missing those important health check-ups. You need to keep yourself healthy to deal with that extra pressure of doing a startup. Get yourself a health insurance. Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, is a big votary of physical activities that keep entrepreneurs healthy. Take a leaf from his life and launch marketing campaigns that would require you to do go out and get involved.

3. Don’t be under-funded: Sometimes it just seems like a good idea to start without having the necessary seed capital, but this path is ridden with perils. The reason being that a number of expenses line up after you have started, and in the absence of enough money to back up, the initial enthusiasm could fade. So before you take the plunge, be as clear as possible to the possible expenses that your startup would have to incur before you break even. List down the possible sources of funding, friends and family being the first one, and how you would be spending the money. Cash flow problems could arise once in a while but case of chronic cash trouble could take a beating on your self-confidence.

4. Don’t depend hugely on one customer: Spread the risk by ensuring that your customer base is a good mix, spread across geographies, if possible. Repeat business is a good sign but you might soon feel comfortable with your repeat customers to the extent that you would stop taking work from new ones. It is a bad sign. There would be new things to learn from every customer, so don’t miss the opportunity. No more than 15-20 percent of your business share should be from a single customer. Reach out to newer markets in different countries and you would soon realize that the learning experience for you would be tremendous.

5. Don’t lose patience: Hang in there even if things look a hazy. Rather than worrying, spend more time in finding out what the problem is and what solution could be found. Read, learn and ask. Meet with other entrepreneurs in your industry and talk about the business problems you face rather than brood over them. Instead of searching for a psychologist, it is better to seek a mentor.

Feel free share your experiences as an entrepreneur and how you overcame difficulties of work-life balance, funding and customer acquisition.

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Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?

Is Entrepreneurship In the Blood?

Families full of entrepreneurs are not uncommon to find (think the Waltons and Vanderbilts). Though many deem it difficult to engage in business with one’s family, these entrepreneurs did not think twice. Is this because entrepreneurship is in their genes, or because it was expected of them—or perhaps a little of both?

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Is It Wise to Hire your Friend

Most business advice blogs tend to be full of stale, common sense puffery. My main goal, as the editor-in-chief of Secret of Great Achievers, is to apply my knowledge and experiences to the discussion of many business-changing decisions young entrepreneurs make or don’t make. Many of these practices are often considered taboo, but I plan to break them down in a contemporary and honest way.

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Success in the Technology Business: Stocks or Entrepreneurship?

The technology business can involve different paths to success, but most of those paths rarely lead anywhere except to bankruptcy and discouragement.  These businesses are so complex and difficult for many of us to comprehend that we often simply give in to the hype that permeates the industry.  We are exposed to ideas in the media about where technology is headed and what we must do to profit off of it.

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5 Questions to Ask While Searching for a Co-founder

Starting your business, especially the first one, is like starting a new life. If you are sure of what you want to achieve, you would soon find yourself thinking and talking about your startup all the time, as if you were living in a new world. This is where you need someone who could share your vision, help you strategize better and work with you to make the plan work on ground. This could be your first key employees, a mentor or better still, a co-founder.

A co-founder is someone you can trust and fall back on. Some entrepreneurs prefer to tie-up with their old college friend or a colleague they know quite well, provided they have the right skills. Some bring their spouses or siblings on board, if they share the same vision. However, the worst thing that you can do to yourself and your startup is to make someone a co-founder only because he/she is “known” to you. Business is about hard facts and numbers, it is not a boat ride or a mountaineering trip. So, you got to be cautious as to whom you want as a co-founder. A right co-founder can add a lot of value and make your entrepreneurial journey worthwhile while a wrong one can rock the boat and leave you gasping for breath.

If you are looking for a co-founder, ask yourself some quick questions:

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Personal Brands are All the Rage – Here are Four Reasons Why Many Fail

Today’s world has many successful personal brands – Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuck, and Tony Robbins to name a few. Their success has led many to believe that their own ideas and philosophies can be practically applied to the world market for improving other’s lives. These success stories, combined with the recent surge in social media and the ease of use and high potential for Facebook and Twitter marketing has created a very big illusion – personal brands are easy and will carry high success with their creation. Unfortunately, this is statistically almost never the case. The reality is that very few people are able to create a personal brand that earns them an equal amount of money, let alone more money, than their existing occupations do.

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What Type Of Entrepreneur Are You?

When it comes to entrepreneurship, it’s worth noting that not all small business owners are created the same. It goes a little deeper than personality though. The type of entrepreneur you are can have an effect on how successful you are at starting a small business.

In this article, we look at several types of entrepreneur, and the pros and cons that go with that particular type. Read on, and figure out which one you are, and how to make the most of it.

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10 Business Ideas for the Teen Entrepreneur

Many of the most successful people in business today started out as teenage entrepreneurs.  For many teens, the realization that building something of your own beats working for “the man” comes to them naturally, but coming up with the right idea isn’t always easy.  So here are 10 ideas to get your creative juices flowing.  Most can be started by anyone, and a few will require some specialized knowledge, but might get you on the right path or spark another idea, even if you don’t have that knowledge right now. 

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Marketing with Meaning

“Marketing with meaning”, can be defined as bringing value to clients (potential and existing) through your marketing tactics. What does this mean for a business? Is offering a product or service enough of a value in itself? Merriam-Webster provides several definitions of the word value: “a fair return or equivalent in goods, services, or money for something exchanged; relative worth, utility or importance; something (as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable.” Marketing with meaning is about added value. With today’s bombardment of billboards, commercials, and online pop-up ads, people are being interrupted more frequently with less valuable information. What consumers need and what they perceive they need can be very different, and marketers have long since played off of this.

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33 Quotes to trigger the Entrepreneurial Spirit in you! Enjoy

Quotes.  Entrepreneurs are fascinated with them.  They spark our creativity, motivate us to action, and inspire us to greatness.  They offer us insights into the spirit behind innovation and genius. And they act as fuel to the blue-flame fire that burns deep within every true entrepreneur.

The 33 quotes below are, in our opinion, some of the best of the best.  They come from authors, poets, inventors, scholars, and entrepreneurs – all legends in their own rights.  So jot them down on Post-it notes and decorate your workspace. Grab red lipstick and write them in sweeping letters across your mirrors.  Pick your favorite and brand it on your…palm.  The right words at the right time can be paramount to your success, so do whatever it takes to keep inspiration close at hand.

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How to Handle Difficult People

A bully at your work is difficult for you to face. He is demanding you do part of his job without pay or credit. How do you handle it?

Your neighbors are constantly fighting. They wake you up in the middle of the night with their screams and curses. What do you say to them?

Your father is unhappy about your career choice. He constantly criticizes your work and points out what he thinks you should do. How do you deal with him?

Difficult situations are part of everyone’s life. Employers and employees can’t get along. Partners clash over money. Spouses cannot resolve disagreements.

If you ignore these situations, they always get worse. Employees get fired, partnerships and marriages break up, everyone is miserable.

Waiting and worrying, the most common "solution," also allows the problem to get worse while giving you stress and shortening your life span.

If you attack the person, at least you are trying to fix the problem. But attacks, rage or irrational anger gives you a bad name, makes people afraid of you and reduces honest communication.

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Jealousy: How to Kill the Green-eyed Monster

Nothing can ruin a relationship or marriage faster than jealously. Jealousy creates anxiety, anger, loneliness, hate, fear. No one thinks clearly when jealous.

Having a relationship with a jealous person is tough. The jealous person acts untrusting or unworthy. Jealousy makes the person unattractive, even repulsive.

No one wants a jealous mate and no one likes being jealous. So what causes jealousy?

"Jealousy is the largest factor in breaking up marriages. Jealousy comes about because of the insecurity of the jealous person and the jealousy may or may not have foundation. This person is afraid of hidden communication lines and will do anything to try to uncover them." — L. Ron Hubbard

When you are jealous, a line of communication is going on with your spouse or lover that is hidden from you. The mystery causes the pain. If you witnessed your spouse’s communication line, so it was not hidden from you, you would not feel jealous.

Hidden communication lines or mysteries make you think of questions. "Will she find someone she likes better than me?" "Is he having an affair?" "Is she going to leave me?" "Does he think I’m unattractive?"

When you are jealous, the mystery makes you assume the worst. "Maybe he’ll fall in love with his cute receptionist and leave me." "She’s going to lunch with her old boyfriend because she’s still attracted to him." "He’ll come home and tell me he wants a divorce."

So how do you handle your feelings of jealousy? How do you deal with a spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend who is jealous?

Solutions

"Communication is the root of marital success from which a strong union can grow, and non-communication is the rock on which the ship will bash out her keel*." — L. Ron Hubbard (*Keel: The main structural part of a ship that goes from bow to stern—front to back.)

If you are jealous, you need to communicate. You need to stop assuming the worst and ask questions. Communicate your feelings so you can work out solutions.

Bob says to his wife, "I don’t want to feel this jealously. I want to get rid of it by asking you a question, okay? Good. So are you attracted to Joe?"

His wife says, "Heavens no! Joe just wanted some help with his son. I love YOU like crazy!"

Bang! The hidden communication is revealed. The mystery is resolved. Bob feels much better.

If Bob doesn’t communicate, his wife’s communication with Joe makes Bob jealous, afraid and angry. Their marriage suffers.

If your mate is jealous, make sure you have no hidden lines of communication. "Would you like to read this letter from Jill?" "Can you meet with Joe to help with his son?"

Use communication to resolve the problem. For example, you notice Marcia is acting upset and not talking. You ask yourself, "What communication line might be hidden from Marcia?" You realize she’s been acting annoyed ever since you started working for an attractive female boss.

"Marcia, have I told you about my new boss?" Marcia jumps up and now wants to talk. You communicate the facts and remove the mystery. Marcia is cheerful and wants to go to a movie.

As well as using communication to resolve mysteries, communicate your feelings for your spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend. Tell him or her how you feel. Express your love. Show your affection.

Resolve the mysteries of the past. Discuss your feelings in the present. Make plans for the future. Because of communication, your relationship will be a big success.

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How to Get Along with Your Spouse (and Others)

When your spouse does something wrong, how do you react?

Some spouses like to blame. "You really embarrassed me when you told that stupid joke. You make me want to stay at home."

Other spouses prefer to criticize. "You’re so fat it makes me sick."

Getting even is also a favorite response. "Well, because you were flirting with Chris, I decided to flirt with Pat."

By blaming, criticizing or getting even with your spouse, you are trying to be AT CAUSE by putting your spouse AT EFFECT. Unfortunately, putting your spouse AT EFFECT is harmful to your relationship. You start arguments and fights. Just because your parents reacted badly toward each other is no reason you need to continue the tradition.

Cause and Effect

When it comes to situations and relationships, you are either at a cause point or an effect point. When you paint a wall, you are at cause over the paint and the color of the wall. When you spill paint all over your clothes, you are at the effect of that paint.

There are two types of relationships:

1. CAUSE-EFFECT is the most common type of relationship. As in the examples above, you take command of the relationship and put someone else at the effect of you or the problem.

For example, husband John says, "Mary, you ran over the neighbor’s gate. How could you be so stupid?"

John might feel at cause over the gate problem, but Mary will feel effect.

2. In a CAUSE-CAUSE relationship, you assume a cause point yourself AND you allow or encourage others to assume the cause point as well. This idea comes from L. Ron Hubbard who writes:

"If Mary burns the toast, John accepts responsibility for this action. This does not mean that he assumes all the responsibility and leaves none for Mary. It means that he assumes all the responsibility and that Mary assumes all the responsibility, too. They both assume all the responsibility. Under such an arrangement, no one can be blamed. All their attention goes into doing better with the toast, and none of it is wasted in blame.

"Mary runs the family automobile into the neighbor’s gate. The neighbor rushes over in a huff and encounters John in the front yard. The neighbor says, `You just ruined my gate!’ John goes with the neighbor to look at the gate and at the car. Sure enough, there is blue paint on the gate and white paint on the car. The evidence is conclusive. John agrees with the neighbor that the gate has been damaged by John’s car and he asks the neighbor to have it repaired and send him the bill. The neighbor says that the damage is not very great and so he will repair it himself. John lends him the tools and helps him to repair the gate. John insists on buying a can of white paint, and the neighbor says he will enjoy painting the gate on Sunday. He apologizes for being so excited at first. They shake hands.

"John goes into the house, and Mary says, `Dear, I hit the Jones’s gate with the car.’ John says, `Yes, I know. We’ve already repaired it." Mary says, `I’m sorry. I was thinking about the bathroom curtains.’ John says, `That’s all right. What about the bathroom curtains?’ Mary says, I want to dye them blue.’ John says, `That’s a good idea.’

"If nobody is to blame for the damage to the gate, a constructive subject like dyeing the curtains will immediately attract John’s and Mary’s attention, since it represents future action." — L. Ron Hubbard

Cause-cause relations are teamwork at its very best. You and your spouse accept responsibility for all of the actions of each other. You spread an umbrella of responsibility.

Imagine no arguments or upsets with your spouse. Imagine never trading insults or hurtful comments.

Making a cause-cause relationship with your spouse is the road to a happy marriage.

Give it a try!

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How to Be More Popular

Many people believe the route to success is to be interesting—to show off or act like someone else. For example, many teenagers can’t understand why they are unpopular. They learned as children that to get attention they should act up a little; to be as interesting as possible. Yet acting interesting does not make a teenager popular. 

To handle their unpopularity, they might decide to despise people or become loners. Or they try harmful acts to gain respect: smoking, drinking, graffiti, shoplifting, drugs, sex, guns and so on.

Acting interesting can ruin your adult life as well. Show-off employees, self-centered managers and pompous business owners rarely do well for long.

The secret to popularity is not to be interesting, but to be interested.

"When a person becomes terribly interesting he has lots of problems, believe me. That is the chasm which is crossed by all of your celebrities, anybody who is foolish enough to become famous. He crosses over from being interested in life to being interesting. And people who are interesting are really no longer interested in life. It’s very baffling to some young fellow why he can’t make some beautiful girl interested in him. Well, she is not interested, she is interesting." — L. Ron Hubbard

If you are an actor on stage, you are interesting while acting. Seminar speakers are interesting. Comedians, models and magicians are interesting.

Yet in real life, on a one-on-one basis, interesting people are irritating. They only do things to get your attention and admiration. They believe they are on stage acting for an audience of one.

If you want people to cooperate with you, to like you or to open up to you, you must be interested.Instead of focusing on yourself, you start to focus on others. You notice what makes them happy or unhappy. Your attention comes off of you and onto others.

When your thoughts are more on others than on yourself, you feel little stress. You act and respond with more intelligence. Your production level increases and you have more fun.

When you are interested, people love your interest in them. They want to be around you. You are popular.

Five Ways to Be More Interested

1. Strive to shift your attention from yourself onto other people or objects. This is a great stress reliever.
2. Find things about people that interest you. Force yourself to look for interesting things. Soon you will automatically take interest in people without thinking about it.
3. If you catch yourself acting like someone else, you are being interesting. Simply get interested in the person in front of you and you’ll feel more natural. You are most effective when you are simply being yourself.
4. When someone makes you nervous or shy, get interested in them. Take your attention off of yourself and on to others. With practice, you will be calm, even bold.
5. Focus on how you can help others. Let your interest in helping people replace your tendency to act interesting. Your effectiveness and popularity will soar.

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Attitude: The Whole World Stinks!

"The Whole World Stinks!"

While Grandpa is taking a nap on the couch, his seven-year-old grandson gets some Limburger cheese from the refrigerator and smears it on Grandpa’s mustache.

When grandpa wakes up, he says, "This room stinks!" He goes to another room and says, "This room stinks." After walking throughout the house, he says, "The whole house stinks!"

Grandpa goes outside and takes a deep breath and says, "The whole world stinks!"

Your attitude about life does the same thing.

Examples

1. Your marriage is not going well. You go to a movie and notice how nobody smiles. Couples seem to be bored with each other. The movie’s happy ending seems phony.
2. Someone’s nasty comment at work makes your head feel like exploding with anger. While driving home, everyone seems aggressive and rude. You drive like a dangerous, insane maniac. You think about gun ownership.
3. You watch the news on television for a few hours and feel uneasy. You go outside and look at airplanes as possible threats. You suspect your neighbor might be a bad guy. You jump out of your skin when a kid yells, "Bang!"
4. Your business just made a healthy profit this month. You celebrate at a restaurant where the food tastes great and the waitress is cheerful. When you go outside, the sunset looks glorious. Everyone seems to be smiling.

Why Life Changes

In an article "Is it Possible to Be Happy?" L. Ron Hubbard writes:

"You remember when you were maybe five years old, and you went out in the morning and you looked at the day, and it was a very, very beautiful day, and you looked at the flowers and they were very beautiful flowers.

"Twenty-five years later you get up in the morning, you take a look at the flowers—they are wilted. The day isn’t a happy day.

"Well, what has changed? You know they are the same flowers, it’s the same world, something must have changed.

"Probably it was you."

"Actually, a little child derives all of his pleasure in life from the grace he puts upon life. He waves a magic hand and brings all manner of interesting things into being out in the society. Here is this big, strong brute of a man riding his iron steed, up and down, and boy, he'd like to be a cop. Yes sir! He would sure like to be a cop; and twenty-five years later he looks at that cop riding up and down and checks his speedometer and says, 'Doggone these cops!'

"Well, what is changed here? Has the cop changed? No. Just the attitude toward him. One's attitude toward life makes every possible difference in one's living. You know you don't have to study a thousand ancient books to discover that fact. But sometimes it needs to be pointed out again that life doesn't change so much as you."

"The day when you stop building your own environment, when you stop building your own surroundings, when you stop waving a magic hand and gracing everything around you with magic and beauty, things cease to be magical, things cease to be beautiful."

Add Some Magic to Your Life

Clear out the smell of Limburger cheese and make your life more enjoyable with this exercise.

1. Look around you. Notice your immediate surroundings in present time. Focus on where you are.
2. Think of a way you can make your environment a little more comfortable. Write it down.
3. Think of a way you can make your environment a little more cheerful. Write it down.
4. Think of a way you can make your environment a little more beautiful. Write it down.
5. Do these three things.
6. Repeat as needed until your attitude and the world around you improves.

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