These 4 questions can gauge if you can be a successful entrepreneur

Do you have skills to create a startup? DesignCrowd Co-founder Adam Arbolino shares characteristics of entrepreneurs who have what it takes

Great ideas are a dime a dozen. Everyone has them. And everyone has the potential to turn those ideas into a product, service or business, especially with the digital tools available today. Just look at the number of projects on Kickstarter.

While it’s one thing to start a business or launch an idea, it’s another to become a scene-changing entrepreneur. Here are a few questions you should ask yourself to see if you’ve got what it takes.

1. Will you accept failure?

The hardest thing to do is to take that first leap of faith into the unknown and know there is a risk that you might fail. In fact, it’s more than a risk, it’s almost a certainty. This is the number one reason that holds people back from being successful beyond their dreams.

It might not sound encouraging, but this is the key difference between a business owner and an entrepreneur. Business owners manage and operate. Entrepreneurs take risks to create growth. They’re constantly evaluating the marketplace and developing strategies to take the business to the next level, whether that involves looking for investors or bringing in equity partners. They’re also willing to take risks even when they know there’s the possibility of failure.

“Smart entrepreneurs develop an intuitive ability to sniff out and mitigate startup business risk,” writes Jim Price in Business Insider, “But you know you’re going to fall down, and feel comfortable with that fact and that you’re going to learn from your failures and adjust as you go.”

I’ve been asked, “How do you accept failure?”. My answer is that sometime you have to choose the path that you will regret it if you didn’t take it, even if you know you may fail.  With this mindset, you can fall a hundred times and still get back up to fight another day.

2. How’s your drive?

A passion for an idea and a drive to succeed is in the DNA of almost every entrepreneur I’ve met. When the passion for an idea runs through your veins, time starts to fly. Hours feel like minutes. When you love what you do and you are driven to make it work at all costs, you ‘time travel’.

Entrepreneurship is not a nine to five thing. Instead, it comes from deep passion to innovate and an intense motivation to dream, learn, do and continue moving upwards. Rayyan Islam recently wrote that entrepreneurs approach their work and tasks like an Olympic athlete. They think big. They want to win gold.

3. Can you lead, and be tough while doing so?

Just as entrepreneurs are never satisfied with the status quo, they’ll never fall in with the pack, either. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to lead – consistently, confidently and even aggressively. You’ve got to make tough decisions and have the confidence to rebound – and lead others to do so – when obstacles, challenges and setbacks crop up.

This also entails being a tough player. Entrepreneurs are characteristically resilient, thick-skinned, persistent and incredibly self-believing. They value the opinions of others, but they don’t let enemies, critics and naysayers drag them down. Instead, an entrepreneur has to be able to cut through all that and still retain focus and drive.

4. Will you live on the emerging edge?

This is where the entrepreneurial world lives. Joe Robinson articulated this brilliantlywhen he said, “Entrepreneurs have a curiosity that identifies overlooked niches and puts them at the forefront of innovation and emerging fields. They imagine another world and have the ability to communicate that vision effectively to investors, customers and staff.”

Vision is important, but you must also be ‘envisioning’ on the cutting-edge of your industry and beyond. Think about recent market-changing apps such as Vine or Instagram or even Richard Branson’s future plans for space hotels. Sounds unrealistic, but it’s part of his vision and it’s what makes an entrepreneur.

All these traits and behaviours culminate in an innate drive to succeed in the business world, to bring more value to an industry and potentially change the way people think, see, work or believe. If that’s your end goal, then congratulations – you’re on the right path to becoming a world changer, and the entrepreneurial challenge is already at your fingertips.

From e27

Nigerian entrepreneurs petition PayPal to enter country

Frustrated with the ridiculous complexity of trying to buy something online? Hate having to order something then arrange a electronic payment from your bank separately? Would you like the peace of mind that of an easy to-use-escrow service that helps to weed out dodgy online traders by not paying them until you’re satisfied with the goods received?

You’re not alone.

“Bring PayPal to Nigeria.” That’s the rallying call of a group of Nigerian entrepreneurs who are calling on PayPal CEO Scott Thompson to get his company into the country in order to make business and ecommerce easier for locals.

The petition was set up on Change.org by a group of younger web designers running a company called Creativity Kills, who say it’s unfair to leave Nigeria out from using the online payment gateway. PayPal is currently available in 47 other countries in Africa, including South Africa.

Here are a few paragraphs from the petition.

Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa with millions of dollars in e-commerce potential and Nigerians that want to take part in online transactions cannot fully use PayPal which is accepted as the only payment method on some websites.

This has become a source of frustration for us the Legit people who want to carry out ecommerce online but have no access to this feature. Some have defaulted to hood-winking the PayPal system via proxies, we don’t want to any more!

We have the right to carry out online transactions as much as any other country in the world. Granted, Nigeria is known for internet fraud, but not everyone in Nigeria is a fraud. There are people like us who are talented web developers and gurus. I don’t see why we have to suffer for other peoples actions.

We deserve a shot, we are tired of being ostracized by PayPal!

According to the petition, PayPal could bring the service to Nigeria by partnering with local service such as Interswitch, Paga or GTBank. “These are possible scenarios that are better than locking a country out totally”.

Bring PayPal to Nigeria has 391 signatures so far, with 109 more needed to reach its 500 signature goal.

From Htxt Africa

These 5 Decisions Define You as an Entrepreneur

Most aspiring entrepreneurs are convinced that the strength of their initial idea somehow defines them as a leader, as well as the success potential of their derivative business. In my experience, it's a lot more complicated than that. It takes leadership ability, as well as a good idea, to make a successful entrepreneur, and great leaders evolve from key leadership decisions along the way.

Fortunately, basic leadership and entrepreneurial skills can be acquired from experience and training. If you don't have the entrepreneur leadership attribute or interest, but want to be an "idea person" or inventor, then I recommend that you find a partner with the requisite skills to implement and run the business from your idea.

Yet we all know that there is a big gap between good entrepreneurs and a great business leaders. Great leaders seem to make the right pivotal decisions at every critical point along the way. I've never been able to clearly define those key points, and what separates the good from the great at these points.

So I was happy to see Julia Tang Peters, in her new book Pivot Points, tackle this issue. She concludes from her work with many modern business leaders, including CEOs Bud Frankel (Frankel & Company) and Glen Tullman (7wire Ventures), that there are five pivotal decisions that propel certain entrepreneurs to be gifted leaders:

1. 1. The launching decision. At some point an idea captures your imagination and creating a business becomes more than just about income. You define goals that rivet your attention, galvanizing you to turn dreams into reality. The launching point establishes the platform on which every potential entrepreneur becomes an actualized entrepreneur.
2. 2. The turning point decision. This is the confluence of your willful decision to do more, and the pressing need to take action. It unleashes an extraordinary verve to take the idea or business to the next level. It tests your capabilities and capacity in various ways, stretching them far beyond your comfort zone and requiring total commitment.
3. 3. The tipping point decision. Here you are catapulted into leading and working on the business, as distinctly different from the work of mastering your subject and working in the business. At this point you will have built a team whom you trust with substantive responsibilities, freeing you to hone the art of leading, inside and outside the business.
4. 4. The recommitment decision. Now is the time when you as the leader look at where you are and where you want to go, knowing the need to renew the commitment or leave. For many this happens during disruptive change, like being acquired or being the acquirer. For others, it's a personal decision to balance family life, or do something different.
5. 5. The letting go decision.  The ultimate test of leadership is letting go at a time of strength so that others can carry on the work. It may be a hold'em or fold'em business situation, or simply time to plan for succession. This decision point is the most emotionally challenging, since letting go is pivotal in defining the terms of the entrepreneur's legacy.

I'm certain that an understanding of these points will equip you with the knowledge you need to take the right path on decisions when it matters most. The world is full of high-achievers and high expectations, but without the proper framework for turning entrepreneurial determination into real leadership accomplishment, you risk going nowhere.

I agree with Peters that entrepreneurial leadership is not all about people traits or characteristics, but often about the choices they make at key decision points along the way. Of course, skills in decision-making are not enough alone to make a great entrepreneurial leader. Here are some of the other characteristics I look for:

• Willing to listen, and will address skeptical views.
• Always an evangelist and a good communicator.
• Willing to question assumptions and adapt.
• Proactively sets metrics and track goals.
• Ties rewards to performance results.
• Aggressively takes smart risks.

So a great idea is necessary but not sufficient to make you a great entrepreneur and a great leader. Work on the right characteristics, and think hard about those five key pivotal decisions that can make or break your satisfaction and your legacy. It's more fun when you are the entrepreneur leader you want to be.

From Huff Post

Young entrepreneurs becoming bosses, not employees

Forget corporate America and the traditional job route. These days, some college graduates are launching their own businesses with just a degree in hand.

Kaleb Bryan, 24, created his first business selling televisions at 19 and after selling that business two years later, launched a startup after graduating last year from Texas A&M University.

Disregarding corporate America, Bryan is one of many young graduates who are starting a business shortly after earning a degree. With a low barrier to entry thanks to technology and a smaller capital requirement, young entrepreneurs are launching their businesses with minimal difficulty.

In March, Bryan launched Spotagory, a location-based mobile photo-sharing app.

“Every entrepreneur seeks an opportunity to make something better, and that’s what I wanted to do with Spotagory,” he said.

Many colleges are providing their students with classes and even seed money to start their own businesses while they are still in school. Southern Methodist University, Baylor University and the University of Texas at Dallas have programs that provide capital to encourage undergraduate and graduate students to turn their ideas into businesses.

Serial entrepreneur David Grubbs, who also teaches a startup program at Baylor, believes that the cost of starting a business has decreased, attracting college students and recent graduates to entrepreneurship.

Grubbs helped create Baylor’s Accelerated Ventures program, which provides students $5,000 in seed money to create a business over two semesters.

Grubbs said many recent college graduates don’t have mortgages and car payments, making it easier to save money. He also said many entrepreneurs create products and services that have a huge online audience and therefore can operate from any location.

“Becoming an entrepreneur allows you to control your own destiny and do something exciting,” Grubbs said.

According to a survey conducted for online education company CreativeLive, 47 percent of employed millennials would like to “get out of corporate America.”

Although starting a business may be the goal for many college students and recent graduates, it isn’t always practical.

Dave Stangler, vice president of research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation, a nonprofit supporting entrepreneurship, says that interest in studying entrepreneurship in college is growing but student loans act as a deterrent for starting a business after graduation.

“The millennials would certainly appear to be more predisposed to entrepreneurship than prior generations,” Stangler said in an article posted by the foundation last month. “The 20- to 34-year-old age cohort still has a far lower percentage rate of entrepreneurship than older cohorts, and that rate has actually fallen in the last couple of years.”

Southern Methodist University professor Jerry White said he’s seen a surge of interest in college students wanting to run their own businesses, but most will have to wait a couple of years before they can get started.

Although college students are interested in becoming entrepreneurs, they need to save capital first, said White, director of the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship in the Cox School of Business at SMU.

With barriers to entry lower than ever, though, many young entrepreneurs turn to crowdfunding to raise money and gain support for their ideas, he said.

“Fifty-one percent of millennials plan to start their own business in the next five years,” White said, citing recent data from the Kauffman Foundation. “All you need is a laptop and seed money in order to get something started.”

Bryan began developing Spotagory last year while still in school. Joining him are Emmanuel Iroko, who has a master’s degree in electrical engineering, and Brandt Barham, the company’s creative director. The three work from a “startup house” in Coppell.

As a college student, Bryan said, he felt he had nothing to lose starting his own business.

“Failure is the stepping stone to success,” he said.

His app, which launched in March, allows users to share what’s happening around them by providing a photo-based newsfeed for a geographic area. Bryan said he wants the app to provide unity within communities. Spotagory has between 5,000 and 7,500 users, he said.

Bryan said the tech community in Dallas has supported his vision. He attracted a few investors and raised $200,000 before his app launched.

Like Bryan, 24-year-old Texas Christian University graduate Kathleen Ward decided to start her own business shortly after realizing that the corporate world was not for her.

After working for Silicon Valley Bank as an associate for two years, Ward decided to follow her entrepreneurial spirit and launched uChilla, a business she calls “Craigslist for college students.”

“I always wanted to do my own thing and didn’t really enjoy working full-time,” Ward said.

All uChilla users must have a .edu e-mail address. Ward tested her site at TCU last April and launched it in January. Ward raised $50,000 through friends and family before launching the site.

On uChilla, college students and teachers can buy and sell items with others in their university or at nearby schools. Ward said TCU represents the site’s largest user base.

Ward and her team are working on an iOS and Android app that will be ready before the fall semester.

Both Ward and Bryan are glad they took a risk by starting their own businesses without having much traditional work experience.

“I’ll probably never go back to the corporate world,” Ward said. “Being an entrepreneur is too fun.”

From Times Leader

8 Deadly Wastes That Every Entrepreneur Must Avoid

Every entrepreneur I know is short on resources, including time, money, and skills. The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Waste in a startup is any activity that absorbs resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers.

Much has been written about this subject in the world of manufacturing, stemming primarily from the 1990’s work by Taiichi Ohno, called the Toyota Production System (“Lean”). More recently, the concepts have been applied to the general business management context, in a new book by Certified Turnaround Professional, Thomas H. Gray, titled “Business Techniques for Growth.”

While his book goes well beyond controlling waste as an element of growth and success, I was struck by how relevant the waste points are for every startup and every small business. Thus I am morphing the points here, with specific focus on the entrepreneur, who would never think of themselves in the context of automobile manufacturing:

1. Offering too many products and services concurrently. In the startup world, this is often seen as a lack of focus. Trying to do too many things with too few resources, usually means the startup will not shine at anything, and will not survive the competition. That’s a deadly waste you can’t afford. My advice is to keep it simple, and do it well.
2. Inventory and features added too soon. Inventory is money sitting idly by, adding no value. For market changing products, build first a minimally viable product (MVP), and never build products for sale until you have real orders in hand. More features and inventory added early will be wasted as you will need to pivot to match the real market.
3. Bottlenecks to team productivity. Time utilization inefficiency is wasted time. Make sure you are not the bottleneck for your team. Many entrepreneurs insist on making every decision, and spend too much time working in the business, rather than on the business. The result is lower productivity all around. Hire real help and learn to delegate.
4. Lack of communication. Communication is the fuel that controls the speed of startups. Delays in sharing, or lack of communication from the top, result in time and effort wasted, adding no value to the business. As an entrepreneur, you need a visible business plan and weekly team meetings, so everyone is working on current issues and real goals.
5. Poor or too many business processes. Business processes can be your biggest time saver, or your biggest waste. Productive processes start with a plan, and end with metrics that measure value delivered. Entrepreneurs have to embrace creativity and change, yet move quickly with trained teams who can deliver repeatable processes.
6. Focus on activities rather than results. Too many entrepreneurs confuse action with momentum and results. Focus on the 20% of your important tasks that will deliver 80% of the results. Judiciously apply 20% of your energy where it will achieve 80% of the momentum you desire. Then always measure customer results, not work.
7. Defective products and services. Poor quality products and poor customer service are doubly deadly wastes. You lose the customer you paid to acquire, and the unhappy customer spreads the word to potential customers that you are spending marketing resources on, but will never win. Recovery efforts are wasted resource which rarely succeeds.
8. Underutilizing people skills. When people can do more than they are asked or motivated to do, the money spent on others doing that work is waste. The solution is to maximize your own staff productivity first. Recognize and reward the people who excel, provide training, and challenge the team to invent new methods for significant change.
Entrepreneurs and small business always operate on the edge. There is no cushion. Waste means death. Are you as an entrepreneur really ready to deal with the new technology, new regulations, and a new workforce schooled in the digital age? How much time have you spent learning to use the practical techniques and new tools available? It won’t be wasted.
From Forbes

Ten Choices You Will Regret In 10 Years

“If only…” These two words paired together create one of the saddest phrases in the English language.

Here are ten choices that ultimately lead to this phrase of regret, and how to elude them:

1.  Wearing a mask to impress others. – If the face you always show the world is a mask, someday there will be nothing beneath it.  Because when you spend too much time concentrating on everyone else’s perception of you, or who everyone else wants you to be, you eventually forget who you really are.  So don’t fear the judgments of others; you know in your heart who you are and what’s true to you.  You don’t have to be perfect to impress and inspire people.  Let them be impressed and inspired by how you deal with your imperfections.

2. Letting someone else create your dreams for you. – The greatest challenge in life is discovering who you are; the second greatest is being happy with what you find.  A big part of this is your decision to stay true toyour own goals and dreams.  Do you have people who disagree with you?  Good.  It means you’re standing your ground and walking your own path.  Sometimes you’ll do things considered crazy by others, but when you catch yourself excitedly losing track of time, that’s when you’ll know you’re doing the right thing.

3. Keeping negative company. – Don’t let someone who has a bad attitude give it to you.  Don’t let them get to you.  They can’t pull the trigger if you don’t hand them the gun.  When you remember that keeping the company of negative people is a choice, instead of an obligation, you free yourself to keep the company of compassion instead of anger, generosity instead of greed, and patience instead of anxiety.

4. Being selfish and egotistical. – A life filled with loving deeds and good character is the best tombstone.  Those who you inspired and shared your love with will remember how you made them feel long after your time has expired.  So carve your name on hearts, not stone.  What you have done for yourself alone dies with you; what you have done for others and the world remains.

5. Avoiding change and growth. – If you want to know your past look into your present conditions.  If you want to know your future look into your present actions.  You must let go of the old to make way for the new; the old way is gone, never to come back.  If you acknowledge this right now and take steps to address it, you will position yourself for lasting success. 

6. Giving up when the going gets tough. – There are no failures, just results.  Even if things don’t unfold the way you had expected, don’t be disheartened or give up.  Learn what you can and move on.  The one who continues to advance one step at a time will win in the end.  Because the battle is always won far away and long before the final victory.  It’s a process that occurs with small steps, decisions, and actions that gradually build upon each other and eventually lead to that glorious moment of triumph.

7. Trying to micromanage every little thing. – Life should be touched, not strangled.  Sometimes you’ve got to relax and let life happen without incessant worry and micromanagement.  Learn to let go a little before you squeeze too tight.  Take a deep breath.  When the dust settles and you can once again see the forest for the trees, take the next step forward.  You don’t have to know exactly where you’re going to be headed somewhere great.  Everything in life is in perfect order whether you understand it yet or not.  It just takes some time to connect all the dots.

8. Settling for less than you deserve. – Be strong enough to let go and wise enough to wait for what you deserve.  Sometimes you have to get knocked down lower than you have ever been to stand up taller than you ever were before.  Sometimes your eyes need to be washed by your tears so you can see the possibilities in front of you with a clearer vision again.  Don’t settle.

9. Endlessly waiting until tomorrow. – The trouble is, you always think you have more time than you do.  But one day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to work on the things you’ve always wanted to do.  And at that point you either will have achieved the goals you set for yourself, or you will have a list of excuses for why you haven’t.  Read The Last Lecture.

10. Being lazy and wishy-washy. – The world doesn’t owe you anything, you owe the world something.  So stop daydreaming and start DOING.  Develop a backbone, not a wishbone.  Take full responsibility for your life – take control.  You are important and you are needed.  It’s too late to sit around and wait for somebody to do something someday.  Someday is now; the somebody the world needs is YOU.

From Mind Unleashed

What Entrepreneurs Love (and Hate) About Running a Business

While there are a variety of things that entrepreneurs love about owning a business, there are nearly as many that they despise.

Running your own business tends to be a love-hate relationship

While there are a variety of things that entrepreneurs enjoy about owning a business, there are nearly as many that they dislike, according to a new study from TD Bank.

When it comes to what they love, nearly all small business owners agree that flexibility and control is the best part about owning their own business. Specifically, 96 percent of those surveyed said that's what they love most about owning a business, with 44 percent reporting that's what prompted them to start their business in the first place.

"A lot of [new business owners] become entrepreneurs so they can be their own boss, control their work hours and find that perfect work-life balance," said Jay DesMarteau, TD Bank's head of small business.

Among the other parts of owning a business that entrepreneurs' relish include talking with clients and customers, filling product orders and performing services, making sales and setting appointments.

However, not every aspect of running a business is pleasant. Bookkeeping was the least favorite task for almost half of the owners surveyed, with marketing the business and banking and handling finances tied for second-most hated tasks.

In addition to what they dislike about running a business, there are three other things keeping small business owners up at night: Money and finances, business management and business growth.

While they might enjoy the flexibility that owning a business affords, it doesn't mean entrepreneurs aren't putting in their hours. The study revealed that nearly half of small business owners work more than 40 hours per week, with 40 percent working between 40 and 60 hours.

If they could impart one piece of advice to those thinking about starting their own venture, nearly half of those surveyed said having a well-thought-out business and financial plan is the top tip they would offer.

The research was based on surveys of 500 U.S. small business owners. Included were small businesses with less than $5 million in revenue, and less than 100 employees.

From Business News Daily