Tag: advice

The True Entrepreneur Is A Doer Not A Dreamer

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“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.

— Nolan Bushnell ; founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s

Conserve The Possibility To Try Again

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“Research has shown, in fact, that the vast majority of successful new business ventures abandoned their original business strategies when they began implementing their initial plans and learned what would work and what would not work in their market. The dominant difference between successful ventures and failed ones, generally, is not the astuteness of their original strategy. Guessing the right strategy at the outset isn’t nearly as important to success as conserving enough resources so that new business initiatives get a second or third stab at getting it right. Those that run out of resources or credibility before they can iterate toward a viable strategy are the ones that fail.

— Clayton M. Christensen ; ‘Innovator’s Dilemma‘

John Osher: 17 Mistakes Start-ups Make

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John OsherJohn Osher is a “serial entrepreneur” who has developed literally hundreds of consumer products, from energy saving devices to baby products, toys and candy, and household appliances. He has built and sold several successful businesses to major companies and is most popularly known as the guy who brought the “five dollar electric toothbrush” to the world. Launched as the SpinBrush, in only fifteen months, it became the top selling toothbrush in the U.S. He started Dr John’s toothbrush company in 1999 and sold the venture to Procter and Gamble only two years later for $475 million.

Here are the “17 mistakes start-ups make” according to him:

  • Failing to spend enough time researching the business idea to see if it’s viable.
  • Miscalculating market size. Entrepreneurs say, ‘The market size is 50 million people. If I only sell to 2 percent, I’d be selling a million.’ But most products sell less than 1 percent.
  • Making a commitment on sales projections that were wrong. Created costs that require those projections to be met. Run out of money.
  • Overprojecting sales prospects.
  • Making cost projections that are too low.
  • Hiring too many people and spending too much.
  • Lacking a contingency plans.
  • Bringing in unnecessary partners.
  • Hiring for convenience rather than skill requirements.
  • Spending half their time doing something that represents 5 percent of their business.
  • Accepting that it’s “not possible” too easily.
  • Focusing too much on volume and company size rather than profit.
  • Looking for somebody to tell you you’re right.
  • Lacking simplicity.
  • Lacking clarity of your long-term aim and business purpose.
  • Going after too many targets at once.
  • Lacking an exit strategy.

# Source: 17 Mistakes Start-ups Make
# Via: ValleyWag

Seven Golden Rules For Startups & Entrepreneurs

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I thought I’d try a fun little experiment and throw out the following question on Twitter:
“If you were to choose one golden rule for startups and entrepreneurs, what would it be?”
and then see what everyone’s feedback would be and share it over here with you all.

Here are the first seven replies I got:

  • Always have fun #
  • Read Guy Kawasaki’s the Art of the Start, and his upcoming book Reality Check #
  • A startup’s job isn’t to save money, it’s to invest as much in the business intelligently as you can so that the gamble will pay off #
  • Creating customer personas to narrow down your target market which would also help your business plan #
  • Be different #
  • Business is not about ideas, it’s about initiatives #
  • Do not reinvent the wheel #

Thanks to everyone who replied, sending in their golden rules, and helping create this post.

Please do add to the list and enrich it by sharing your golden rules in the comments section.

On Going The Extra Mile

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“When you reach an obstacle, turn it into an opportunity. You have the choice. You can overcome and be a winner, or you can allow it to overcome you and be a loser. The choice is yours and yours alone. Refuse to throw in the towel. Go that extra mile that failures refuse to travel. It is far better to be exhausted from success than to be rested from failure.

— Mary Kay Ash; founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics

Momentum In Continued Improvement & Delivery Of Results

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“Tremendous power exists in the fact of continued improvement and the delivery of results. Point to tangible accomplishments—however incremental at first—and show how these steps fit into the context of an overall concept that will work. When you do this in such a way that people see and feel the buildup of momentum, they will line up with enthusiasm.

— Jim Collins ; ‘Good To Great‘

Rules For Revolutionaries (Guy Kawasaki)

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Rules For Revolutionaries (Guy Kawasaki)One of the very good books I recommend for entrepreneurs aiming to launch the next big product or service, is Rules For Revolutionaries: The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating and Marketing New Products and Services by Guy Kawasaki in collaboration with previous coauthor Michele Moreno.

Guy Kawasaki was former chief evangelist at Apple Computer, is currently Managing Director of Venture Capital firm Garage Technology Ventures and founder of Alltop.com;

This was the first book I read by Guy Kawasaki, and I truly enjoyed it; His writing style is really light and entertaining; yet precise, clear and straight to the point.

The book is divided into three parts, whose titles alone show the book’s style and tone:

1. Create Like a God: This part discusses the way that radical new products and services must really be found, thought of, developed and updated.

2. Command Like a King: This one explains what kind of leaders are truly necessary in order for such revolutionary products and developments to succeed, the best way to market them and how to avoid the usual big mistakes.

3. Work Like a Slave: This last part focuses on the kind of commitment that is actually required to beat the odds and change the world, and how clients should be dealth with and treated.

A concluding section presents a bunch of entertaining and inspirational quotes on topics like technology, transportation, politics, entertainment, and medicine that illustrate how even some of history’s most successful ideas and people have prevailed despite the scoffing of naysayers.

This book is a very interesting read that I recommend for everyone looking to create a new product or service; it really provides a bunch of very useful advice and tips and gives you pointers on how you should go about it all.

# Rules For Revolutionaries (Guy Kawasaki)