Unleash the entrepreneur within. I love this social object by McLeod that illustrates tip number 4 perfectly. We can get all technical, review business models, competitive landscape’s, develop the best teams but none of that matters if the entrepreneur is not unleashing his or her very best. = We were all born creators- co-creators. Creative is in your DNA. Unleashing solutions that add value to others lives is the heart of entrepreneurship.
So what is it that you love, believe in, can’t wait to do whenever you have spare time? How could you unleash that on this world in a new venture, org or business? Let your passions and interests inspire you and then get out of the way and unleash the entrepreneur within. A lot happens because of passion, belief and an entrepreneur’s commitment to work tirelessly to unleash their very best. Don’t even think about bringing something your not excited about to market. It will die on the vein. Unleash that which is genuine, which you cannot, not unleash!
And go Hugh. You rock. I love your social objects! Photo is the exclusive property of Gapenvoid. I hope you follow Hugh MacLeod And enjoy this social object he did for entrepreneurship wonder king Babson College.
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Startup Tip #3 Face it. In start-up you are doing new things. Many of which you’ve never done before. You can’t possibly know what you don’t know, especially if you’ve never travelled the road before.Blind spots. False Assumptions. Denial. Ignorance. Inflexibility and a lack of awareness can kill a startup. Don’t let it kill yours….
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OF course it has to work. The new question is do you have market validation? Are there willing buyers prior to launch? What’s the proof? Do you have contracts? Letters of intent? Can you develop it strategically in unison with another player? Did you do the alpha inside of a potential client who will place…
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So I’ve been busy . Seems more and more people are deciding it’s time to start a new business, or put their existing one in to high gear. In the spirit of small business, I’m going to commit the next 20 posts to how to start a business. I will share as many of my…
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Life Sucks When You Have To Say Goodbye Too Soon…..Jennifer Starr Malean Death. We’d prefer not to think about it, that it never visited and when it did; well, then of course we wished we’d taken that course on death and dying or lived in a culture that knew how to grieve and mourn… About…
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Now that’s a loaded question isn’t it? Kind of like, ”What’s the secret to finding my soul mate, living my vision and getting my teenagers to like me…?” Sitting face to face with a life time career person, new entrepreneur I thought carefully before answering the question , ”What’s the secret, how do I know…
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Copy of Integrated Marketing Communications; Online Marketing Communications on Prezi Click on the visual to enlarge. Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy This is the second in a series of 15 posts I’m sharing on Integrated Marketing Communications. No, I’m not searching for more bright shiny objects to distract me. This is the curriculum I’ve created (some…
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Photo Creative Commons Flickr By 姒儿喵喵 What’s the question you want your web analytics to answer? K.I.S.S web analytics. Keep it simple. I am not a web analytic specialist. I’m an entrepreneur, venture builder, integrated marketer, student- teacher, teacher- student, consultant, coach and ultimately the eternally curious one in the group. Not everyone was born and…
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Thanksgiving with The Union Gospel Mission Seattle; Social Innovation & Swing Photo’s courtesy of Denise Knapp Ever found yourself in a transcendent moment of rhythm, harmony and melody? The convergence of swing? Ever had minutes turn to hours? Ever been in the ‘zone’ lost in the activity of the moment? That’s the feeling I had…
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photo fishermansdaughter “Your babies not beautiful” and other startup advice…. The other day I hosted an entrepreneur chat led by Todd Dean who is now CEO of Brace Audio. Todd has a resume full of entrepreneurial pursuits, the most recent being founder of Keiretsu Forum, an angel investor forum based in the northwest. I invited…
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Creating a Marketing Playbook, The marketing revolution ( Click through to see what a path looks like- now use the zoom in feature on the right hand side and hold down your mouse to grab the screen and self navigate through the content. Click on a video to watch it- click on a url to…
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Marketing Playbook Process; Marketing Plan Template Here’s a 6 step marketing plan template my answer to the boring ineffective marketing templates I find! This is a subset of my original Marketing Playbook toolkit. If you’re ready to upgrade from static plans to dynamic real time playbooks. Here you go. If you click on the arrows it…
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photo byBy Martin Burns “It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom — for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.” The Declaration of Arbroath 1320 What I’m Learning: Education Change Some of them walked in to my class last June…
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Small Business Online Marketing Extraordinaire: Northwest University Students Here’s a few examples of Northwest University student’s online marketing platforms and the story of how this course came to be. By the end of our 15 weeks together every student had created their own online venture, developed a socially integrated platform with outposts in several social networking…
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I’m reviewing Google Analytics on several businesses and it’s reminding me of the importance of the long tail. I briefly reviewed the long tail and SEO for dummies in this post. Now I want to remind you of a few things. The consumer is not landing on your home page looking for solutions. They are…
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Will my idea be a good business? (How Will I Know?) It seems there are a million tools to write a business plan and yet few tools to help entrepreneurs vett out their business ideas/models. Proof of concept, market validation, confirming monetization of your brilliant idea are the first steps in deciding if you should…
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Naming A Business or Product NOW There are some exciting changes coming in regards to my writing. This past year I’ve struggled with what to do about my insatiable desire to inspire hope and how that intersects with my passion for sharing resources for small business owners, entrepreneurs and college students. I think I’ve got…
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photo By Evil Erin Getting Back Up. I think I might just have my PhD in falling down. Not the slight mis-step, trip kind but rather the flat on my face, or back, could the ground just open up and swallow me type. Down for the count. (And by the way I am so getting a…
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So you’re building something. photo By TinCan Studio In the middle of creating something important. Photo byBy superhua And you’re more than ready to be there, DONE, aRRIVED. Finished.photo By Wildcat Dunny So lately you’ve been cheating father (why do we think it’s a man?) time a bit, have you? You’ve crossed off tasks and forgone checks…
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Almost all my friends are entrepreneurs, leaders or creative ragmuffins. I hang with people who create and grow things because they can NOT, not create. I teach, muse, consult, confront, coach and encourage leaders, entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in training…And of course, I have the disease myself… So I know what the trouble with us entrpreneurs …
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photo by charles chan Questions ARE The START of Startup The startup journey begins with discovery and quickly moves into business modeling. In the early stages of business modeling there are only questions, or so it seems. Each question calls us further and further into understanding. Businesses are built on assumptions and…
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photo by By Ha-Wee Standing OUT in the Crowd: Differentiation Funny, at certain seasons in life we really want to ‘belong’ and ‘fit in.’ At other times, like when you want your venture, organization or business to get noticed all you really want is to ‘stand out.’ Standing out in the crowd is an art…
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photo by Shonk Premature Launch: Venture Suicide So what’s premature launch got to do with it? Premature Launch; the act of going to market without adequate capital, key business knowledge, resources, partners, and or contracts necessary for the business to have a better than AVERAGE chance of succeeding! Premature launch causes a variety of issues…
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photo By striatic What if you took the “I” out of most everything; including that “team” of yours? Sitting in a coffee shop last week with an investor I found myself listening to a story about a local entrepreneur who has great demand for his “food” product. Trouble is, he is unwilling to listen to…
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photo by Belgianchocolate WHOSE GOT YOUR EAR? Reactive. Proactive? Listening to many. Listening to none? Whose Got Your Ear? I’m curious, I love to learn. And so over the years I’ve been vulnerable to the influences of many. And guess what- whoever has your ear has your attention. Attention impacts results, being, leading. So what…
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Photo by SamJUK “It’s like they are blowing hot air up my skirt.” The young man said. How many times have you felt like someone was blowing hot air up YOUR skirt, figuratively, of course? Remind you of a current Senator; fibbing, making stuff up, spin? Growing your business, venture or organization involves willing buyers…
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photo by eviltomthai I’ve done it. Maybe you have too? Spent countless hours doing insignificant things. When the time investments you and I make with our one incredible, precious life are in-congruent with what we value we are majoring in the minors, living a life that is insignificant and altogether a waste of time based…
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