Starting a Business? FIND AN ANGEL

STARTING A BUSINESS? FIND AN ANGEL

from the article 'Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs'
By Steve Tobak | February 11, 2011

Find an angel.

The whole mentor and coach thing has become so overblown that - I know this is going to piss a lot of people off, but - I wouldn’t go that route. Instead, find an angel investor who’s willing to provide seed funding for minority ownership. Why? Two reasons:

    1) Objective feedback and validation from a professional investor, another pair of eyes, is huge, and

    2) to help you navigate the business stuff that isn’t your forte.

MY THOUGHTS

why would i open a business that is not my forte?  opening a business is hard enough. opening a business you know very little about is suicide. 

Get a Partner Before Staring a Business

Before starting a Business: GET A PARTNER

from the article "Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs"
By Steve Tobak | February 11, 2011

Get a partner

Just about every successful start-up - Silicon Valley or otherwise - has cofounders. Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Google, Hewlett-Packard - it’s a long, long list. Don’t get me wrong; having a partner is often difficult and they don’t always work out. But the benefits of having someone to bounce ideas off and a two-person support system far outweigh the negatives. And partners have a high level of credibility with entrepreneurs.

MY THOUGHTS

starting a new business, especially your first, is not the time to go alone.  there's a lot of conceptualizing, planning, brainstorming involved.  do you really think you can brainstorm with yourself?  as far as i know - all of us - we only have 1 brain!!!

ADVICE FOR BUDDING ENTREPRENEURS

WHAT OWNERS OF BUSINESS START-UPS SHOULD DO

from the article "Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs"
By Steve Tobak | February 11, 2011

If you’ve got your own company or are planning on starting one, there is one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty. There will be times when you think, what the hell have I done? I can’t do this!

Fortunately, in all likelihood, you’ll be wrong. But who in the world is going to tell you that, with authority, when the time comes? More to the point, who will you believe?

The funny thing about entrepreneurs is that they tend to be skeptics who don’t easily trust others. They generally keep their own counsel. So who are they going to believe, their own inner voice, or their friend or spouse who, by the way, sort of has to say, “Don’t worry; you can do it!”

You see, we overachieving, success-minded people are our own worst enemy. We’re notorious victims of self-doubt, anxiety, and self-limiting behavior that, all-too-often, results in shooting ourselves in the foot … or somewhere even worse.

For enterprising people, the whole idea of finding a mentor, a partner, or like-minded people for support and to bounce ideas around is a complex issue that represents a critical factor in their ultimate success or failure. And since I’ve got a few decades of experience with this sort of thing, here’s some …

Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs

    * Get a partner
    * Find an angel
    * Have a sponsor
    * Maintain balance
    * Take baby steps

MY THOUGHTS

from what i've seen, entrepreneurs (the serious ones) spend more time working than those who work in an office.  if you've just started a business or thinking of starting one,i will post the short explanations to to the 5 points in this article.  wait for it.

DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR

Why You Shouldn't Become an Entrepreneur
By Steve Tobak | October 27, 2010

http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/why-you-shouldnt-become-an-entrepreneur/5895?tag=content;drawer-container

How many of us dream of being a big-shot CEO with all the pay and perks that go with the corner office? Or better still, starting and running our own company. Wouldn’t that be sweet?

Well, I hate to burst your dream bubble, but being an entrepreneur isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Sure, if you’re cut out for it, maybe you’ll survive the pressure and overcome the many challenges. But if you’re not, and most of us aren’t, I wouldn’t quit my day job just yet.

Before we get into all those aforementioned challenges, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least pay homage to the perceived benefits of becoming an entrepreneur:

    * Being your own boss and not having to kowtow to anyone;
    * Doing what you want, when you want;
    * Escape from the stress of corporate life;
    * A shorter and more personal feedback loop; and
    * The unique fulfillment that comes from building something from the ground up, more or less on your own.

So what’s not to like about that, right? Well, I used the term “perceived benefits” for a very good reason. The truth is that entrepreneurial life is nothing like any of that. In fact, all those benefits are, to a great extent, myths. Let’s take them one at a time.

5 Myths About Becoming an Entrepreneur

   1. Being your own boss and not having to kowtow to anyone. There’s no shortage of bosses and people you have to kowtow to when you’re an entrepreneur. Depending on your situation, there are investors, customers, partners, and here’s one that nobody ever anticipates, your spouse. That’s right, once the steady paychecks stop, the spouse becomes all-too-engaged.

   2. Doing what you want, when you want. Sure, you may get to keep your own hours, more or less, but even that changes soon enough. If you’re successful, you’ve got to keep up with business, and if you’re not, you’ve got to work that much harder to change that. And since it’s your gig, there’s no fallback position. If you don’t do it, who will?

   3. Escape from the stress of corporate life. Here’s a little secret: we make our own workplace stress. In other words, we take it with us wherever we go. That’s what surprised me the most about going it alone. Sure, there are always workplace specific stresses and headaches, but you’re just trading the corporate ones for those of an entrepreneur. They’re different, but not necessarily better or worse.

   4. A shorter and more personal feedback loop. Actually, it’s just the opposite. At work you’re presumably getting feedback on a pretty regular basis. There are projects, tasks, and all that good stuff. But the gestation time for a startup business is relatively long. You very quickly come to realize that nothing much matters until the dough starts rolling in, and that could be a very long time. Okay, it is personal, but that’s both good and bad. How well do you handle rejection?

   5. The unique fulfillment that comes from building something from the ground up. Yes, it’s different, but honestly, the sense of accomplishment is really no better or worse than what you get from doing the same thing at someone else’s company, whether it’s building a team, developing a product, or servicing customers.

As a wise VC once said, “there are entrepreneurs and there are Entrepreneurs!” Don’t get me wrong. If there’s something burning inside you; something you feel like you’ve got to do or you’ll burst; and you’re resilient, thick skinned, the sort of person who carves his own path; then go for it. You won’t be disappointed. But you’ll also be better off if you keep your expectations grounded somewhere in the realm of reality.

MY THOUGHTS

what this article is saying is that getting into a business may not be for everybody.  just like any other position, an entrepreneur has its own list of tasks and therefore has its own list of qualifications.  better assess yourself first against those requirements. in other words, if you want to be an entrepreneur, hire yourself first. if you find that you're not qualified, don't give up.  training yourself may do the trick.