Most people are longing to start their own businesses. But do they know what it takes to become successful entrepreneurs? What about you? Which characteristics of successful entrepreneurs do you bring in the business you have or you intend to begin? Before going any further into the details, let me define an entrepreneur as someone, who makes money by starting businesses with some kind of financial risk-taking involved. Is that what you are?

Well, every person joins business with various reasons. These reasons usually determine the performance of the business. I have discovered that many people think that success in business depends upon being highly educated, having lots of money and a supportive family. However, the bottom line of success in your business is motivation, fuelled by the desire to achieve and the enthusiasm to do your business. A highly motivated person tends to behave in a certain way that leads to success and it’s a distinguishing factor of all successful entrepreneurs. How motivated are you?

Through this article, allow me to share with you 15 characteristics of successful entrepreneurs that are fundamental to building a successful business. If you are aiming at succeeding in your business, then it’s high time you started acquiring the following behaviors.

1. BE AN INNOVATOR. To succeed you have to be creative. All successful entrepreneurs think a lot differently from ordinary people. They see things other people have not yet mirrored and are able to introduce new things and new ways of doing things.

2. LEARN TO SOLVE PEOPLE’S PROBLEMS. Successful entrepreneurs are problem solvers. They have the ability to identify specific problems of a given customer group, which require their products or services to be solved. As they solve their customers’ problems, they end up making money. Turning people’s problems into great opportunities is one of the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.

3. BE AN INFORMATION SEEKER. There is no successful entrepreneur who is not hungry for knowledge. You have to get new knowledge, new information and new skills for you to become successful in what you are doing.

4. PERSISTENCE WILL HELP YOU TO SUCCEED. All successful entrepreneurs keep on and on no matter how hard the going may be. They are success-conscious and believe in succeeding despite all roadblocks. They believe that riches come only to those who work hard and long. Indeed! By working hard and consistently long, riches begin to power so quickly and in such a great abundance that you even wonder where they have been hiding during all those years of toiling.

5. LEARN TO SET GOALS. This helps them to know where they are going and how to go there systematically. Without setting goals you are like someone who is blindfolded and asked to shoot the target. You will never know where the target is and you will only be gambling.

6. COMMITMENT TO WORK. How committed are you to your work? Successful entrepreneurs are able to initiate and to pursue their work contracts to the end. They are self-driven and do not need anybody to drive them, to supervise them.

7. DEMAND FOR EFFICIENCY AND QUALITY. Demanding for efficiency and quality is one of the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. They detest mediocrity and can never settle for that. They are able to achieve the desired results without wasting their energy. They always aim at offering goods and services of the highest quality.

8. BE HARD WORKING. Successful entrepreneurs are hard working people. They spend a lot of time, energy and other resources working on their businesses to achieve the desired results. They inspect to get what they expect. They think big and strategically.

9. AIM AT ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS AND DESIRES. All successful entrepreneurs are achievers. They do not give up when faced with a temporary defeat. They do not despair because they are highly motivated people. Whatever they put their hands and their minds on, they commit themselves to achieve it. Until they achieve it, they do not stop. Even after achieving it, they look forward to strengthen their achievements.

10. BE A RISK TAKER. Taking moderate risks is another characteristic of successful entrepreneurs. They don’t fear to take risks. FEAR to take risks discourages initiative, brings about uncertainty of purpose, destroys ambition, kills enthusiasm, destroys good reasoning and stops you from taking action. Besides, there is nothing you can engage yourself in without any risks involved.

For instance, by just driving your car to go to work, you risk getting involved in an accident. But if you already know it, you take precautionary measures to avoid getting an accident other than opting not to drive. That’s how successful entrepreneurs go about their business. They anticipate the risks involved and think of how to overcome them in case they manifested.

11. DESIRE TO BE INDEPENDENT. Desiring to become independent is one of the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. They have a strong drive to be masters of their own life, to take their own decisions and to pursue their own destiny.

12. LEARN TO CONTROL YOUR OWN DESTINY. Successful entrepreneurs control their own destiny. They don’t lose focus of what they pursue. Having a strong desire to walk their road to riches is one of the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. The end justifies the means.

13. BE DETERMINED. Successful entrepreneurs are so strong-minded that they do not give up despite any obstacles. They are always determined to transform their desires and thoughts into their monetary equivalent at any cost.

14. HAVE SELF-CONFIDENCE. Successful entrepreneurs don’t depend on luck. They are able to visualize and they believe in the attainment of their desires at all cost. Ability to visualize and to have faith in the attainment of your desires is an important factor in building your self-confidence.

Developing a high level of self-confidence is a key element in effective business management and success. You need to be sure of yourself to tackle the tasks at hand. You need to have high expectations of achieving success. If you think you can, then you can. But if you think you can’t, the chances are that you cannot. “Yes, we can”, is the winning formula President Obama applied to become president. You, too, can follow the same principle to become a successful entrepreneur.

15. Last but not least, BE CREDIBLE. Credibility is an important element to the success of any businessperson. In my article entitled “Personal Branding, A Key To Success In Your Business”, I emphasized the importance of credibility. Let me not overemphasize the same point but it’s the absolute truth that successful entrepreneurs are credible and honesty paves the way for them to succeed. Will this information help you?

When my clients ask me “what is the biggest obstacle founders face?”, I always give them one-word answer “overconfidence”. In my experience, un-grounded intuition and overconfident beliefs have often been the root of poor decision making. Thus, it is important to differentiate overconfidence from a healthy dose of self-confidence, after all it is the primary driver behind a person’s decision to dive into the murky waters of entrepreneurship.

Let me turn your attention to a past but important fact:

In 2006, nearly 650,000 new businesses with employees opened their doors in the United States, while nearly 565,000 firms closed, according to the U. S. Small Business Administration. More than 99 percent of the nearly 27 million businesses in the U.S. in 2006 were small firms with fewer than 500 employees.

The capacity of our mind is bounded. We tend to focus on very narrow slices of information and ignore massive amounts. We imagine that reality is simple, that we can reasonably forecast the future, and we become overconfident as result. In short, we fail to appreciate how much we do not know — how much uncertainty we should have. Further, we tend look for evidence supporting what we already believe; consequently, we become more overconfident. We fail to appreciate that our beliefs just might be false, that we are fallible.

Unfortunately, we don’t seem to learn very well from experience. We regularly need to remind entrepreneurs not to ignore the role of chance and randomness in events. Our mind is constantly trying to make sense of things – and it has a great liability to do so, even when there is nothing to be made sense of (except randomness). And, as you read these words, their truth will seem obvious – because you cannot imagine fully not knowing what you know now. In hindsight, everything is obvious, including this point. Since everything becomes clear to us and we forget what we did not know, the cycle feeds itself and we become even more overconfident.

However, if we can recognize that we are surrounded in time by massive uncertainties, then we are least on the right path. Acknowledging that we are fallible and tend become overconfident is itself incompatible with overconfidence. We should keep in mind that we are not as clever as we had imagined we were back when we were less clever. We should use the tools that we have at our disposal (e. g. statistics, experimentation, our capacity to reason in a rigorous way), and avoid making decisions based on un-grounded intuition and overconfident beliefs.

One thing defines an entrepreneur – constructive action.

Typically, they’re the salesman – doing *everything* to get people to buy their stuff. We all have the image in our heads; the “wheeler-dealer”, picking any opportunity to try and exploit (and other people) for profit.

Indeed, the term “entrepreneur” seems to have drifted around the present lexicon – from “something you did” (typically to improve people’s lives) into a blend of “money mad hustler” and “someone who doesn’t ‘follow the rules'”.

The reality is the modern meaning could not be further from the truth.

Entrepreneurship isn’t a vocation or job. It’s not a label which you apply to yourself in order to make yourself more endearing to a particular party, or clientele… it’s a way of doing things.

Many “entrepreneurial” types actually have jobs. They’ll never admit they are “entrepreneurs”, although they exhibit all the traits of one. The question is what these traits are, and whether you – or someone you know – has them.

What Is An “Entrepeneur”?

Entrepreneur is a word derived from French – loosely describing a “problem solver”.

Whilst its connotation has changed over the years, the premise persists – an “entrepreneur” is someone who creates a “widget” and has the ability to encourage other people to buy it.

What this “widget” is can be a commercial product, service or idea.

It’s actually interesting… some of the greatest “entrepreneurs” of history actually had nothing to do with money. They were completely focused on the development of a particular “result” and committed themselves whole-heartedly to its realization.

Whether this meant conquering the Persian empire (Alexander), developing the light bulb (Edison) or creating stable PC systems (Gary Kildall), conquering the Aztec empire (Cortez), the term “entrepreneur” really denotes someone who wants to build something.

The BIG difference between “original” entrepreneurs and the swathes of new-age idiots (who typically aggrandize a hedonistic lifestyle + seem to have an infatuation for “crypto”) is that the former were typically committed to a single profession, and manage to “leverage” that through the development of increasingly ambitious “projects”.

These projects could be anything… but they all had a core “reason” to exist. This reason was what drove the originator to pursue the endeavour, and continue even when it was questionable whether it was even “possible” or not. Obviously, the reason we remember them is that they not only discovered it was “possible”, but entirely feasible… hence their success.

How To Tell If Someone Is One

The typical sign is they will do strange things…

• interest in esoteric ideas
• pursuit of interests not directly correlated to the accumulation of wealth
• strong displays of passion for particular subjects
• immersive nature with different ideas (trying to recreate historical events etc)

The point is that REAL entrepreneurs are not typically concerned about money at all.

Their primary concern is the creation of a “thing”. What that thing is, is determined by either their character or interests… but in every instance of someone who’s achieved a large amount of success, they were completely and utterly focused on doing “their” thing no matter what.

This is actually important.

The modern world seems to have every 18 year old male wanting to be an “entrepreneur” – like it’s a badge of honour or something. If you’re not “growing”, you’re “dying”… right?

The truth is that our society has become so focused on convenience that the majority of these money-grabbing idiots have absolutely no business even considering themselves “entrepreneurs”.

They have no experience, no skills and are only latching onto the latest “fad” in order to escape the mediocrity which has come to pervade the West’s consumerist culture.

Entrepreneurship typically follows YEARS of interest in a particular subject. It typically follows HUGE investments of time & energy into the cultivation of a skill set, experience and “involvement” in a particular space.

Most importantly – entrepreneurship is about doing something “your way”.

Stay Clear Of Modern Idiots

The BIGGEST problem I continually see from the hoards of idiots is they are ALL following a “book” or some other “rules” on “how” to be an entrepreneur.

I see it all the time… guys reading all the biographies, neural studies, latest books from the big wealthy fat cat – all trying to discover the “secret” to massive success.

What’s ironic is that all of this stuff just works on the “outside” of the issue – the same people who read all the “stuff” end up with the SAME questions… “what do I sell?”- “how do I know if I’m going to make money on a product?” – “what’s the secret to getting rich?”.

• If you have to ask “what do I sell”, you’re not an entrepreneur.
• If you have to listen to what a “successful” person has to say on a subject, you’re not an entrepreneur.
• If you have to consider all the “rules” put forward by others, you’re not an entrepreneur.

The point is that the modern world is chock-full of wannabe losers. Even the “successful” ones aren’t actually truly successful – they may have made a bunch of money, but what did they actually achieve? The answer is relatively little (or even nothing).

The truth is that if you want to “be” an entrepreneur, you have to get to work.

EVERYBODY has their own work. Some are models. Some are footballers. Some are computer programmers. Some are painters.

The “trick” is to do ANYTHING in order to get moving forward in an industry; clean the floors if necessary.

Once you start to gain some progress, the “entrepreneurial” stuff comes from leveraging any progress made within it – either to create & market a product, or to help a market better appreciate the potential of another device/product.

Traits Of “Real” Entrepreneurs

• Quiet (or at least reserved)
• Fully capable of embracing failure (indeed, using it as a spur to change/adapt)
• Working constantly on different elements within their “industry” (again, everyone has a place)
• Unafraid of social constructs (just because someone said it doesn’t make it true)
• Laser focused on what “they” want to do (you want to bring sustainable farming to Africa? This is the type of thing a “real” entrepreneur will actually do)
• Unafraid to give freely (most “entrepreneur” types are not attached to money at all… typically not having much until they find mercantile success)

If you haven’t worked it out, the core is purpose.

The modern world has very little emphasis on purpose; rather it focuses on productivity.

Nothing wrong with this, but it devoids most people of their passion. It’s good for GDP and McDonald’s – but bad for the creativity lying latent within a large number of people.

If you want to adopt “entrepreneurial” traits, the key is to become attuned to a particular “purpose” – through which you’re able to invest your entire life.

If you’re just looking at Ferrari’s and thinking that you “kind of want to become rich” – entrepreneurship is not going to do that. It’s a very difficult road, with only the most persistent and enduring surviving.

You need to get to work, and only then will you discover hidden opportunities into which you’re able to apply your expertise, experience or network to build something of real value to the world. This real value is then absorbed by the market, who’ll either pay handsomly for it – or reject it. This is pretty-much what determines whether someone could be considered an “entrepreneur” or not.

Creative entrepreneurs can be fun to work with and they present unique challenges as their imaginations fly unfettered. The possibilities they imagine for their dream are endless and they can struggle with focus and reality. Learning to channel the creative energy and boundless dreaming into a plan of action that will result in some measure of business success can be extremely challenging for many. Nowhere is that conflict and contrast between a dream and reality highlighted more than when the entrepreneur presents his story to would-be investors.

If you are one of the creative entrepreneurs, your reality check begins with an understanding that the investors are attempting to evaluate the opportunity by assessing the risks involved and the value created so far. This can be a rough process for the entrepreneur who is so fixated on the creative aspects of the invention and the wild-eyed dream in his or her head. Several statements that entrepreneurs make to seasoned investors are sure to send them running, and fast. They may like the product but perceive you to be the biggest risk impeding its potential. In that case, they may make an offer to buy out the product, leave the entrepreneur out of the business and insert their own management team.

Five statements frequently made by entrepreneurs that send investors running:

1. Nobody has ever done this before. It may be possible that nobody has done exactly what you have created in the way you have implemented it, but this statement reflects either complete ignorance of how people are solving the problem today or amazing arrogance in somehow believing that you have magically emerged from the mists of creativity and invented something so unique. First, you lose credibility with the investor for your lack of insight, and second, you may convince them that there is no market for what you have created. Nothing good can come from such a statement. You would do well to acknowledge the various ways that others are solving the problem today and then clarify why your creation is a better solution.

2. This product will revolutionize the world of… This statement is similar to the first one but instead reflects ignorance about consumer loyalty and buying behavior, the market, product adoption rates, distribution channels and more. A million faster-better-cheaper-sweeter products have come along promising to revolutionize the world. Even large corporations are not immune to this problem. To be successful with your new invention does not mean revolutionizing anything without the faintest idea how to accomplish that. Instead, it requires a thorough understanding of the issues involved with getting your product into the hands of willing customers and converting them into raving fans. Where it goes from there is up to you, your product and your new fans.

3. We don’t need marketing. Ah yes, this is the tried and true, “This product will sell itself. Everyone will want one.” Similar to number two, this statement reflects amazing ignorance about how you will make customers aware of the product, persuade them to buy it and then convert them into raving fans. Far too many entrepreneurs prepare financial projections practically devoid of marketing spending, yet portraying astronomical growth from the day of the launch of the product. The odds of that being a successful strategy are less than slim.

4. Tens of millions of eyeballs will flock to my web site. The lack of marketing in building strategic plans shows up more frequently in web-based business concepts. Entrepreneurs naively assume that simply having a URL, launching a web site and then doing some search engine optimization and social networking will cause the hordes to come visiting. They will happily cite YouTube, Facebook and other successful large web-based entities as examples. For each one of those sites, there are thousands of potentially valuable and creative web sites floundering in the vast ocean of the internet. They struggle for relevance, attention, awareness and a regular loyal fan base. Do not assume a “build it and they will come” attitude. You must sell it and get them to come and let them help you build it.

5. If just 1 percent of the US population were to buy one. Of course, if this was possible, it seems to be a fantastic opportunity. The problem is that it reflects the same ignorance and naivety about marketing above. Simply assuming a very small percentage of a very large market will buy your product because the small percentage seems “very conservative” reflects a complete lack of understanding about who will by the product, why they will buy it, how you will get it to them, how you will make them aware of it and so on. Instead, design a marketing and sales plan to show clearly how you will acquire the first few customers, and then the next few and so on until it grows to a large number. Who knows, this may turn out to be a small percentage of a large market but you get there by selling to one customer at a time.

There are many more misunderstandings than can turn a potential investor off the dream. For example, responding to the question, “What will you do with the money we invest in your business?” with, “I’m going to pay off my $98,000 credit card debt.” A dose of reality often earns more money in both investment funding and marketplace success as the entrepreneur takes a closer look at exactly what will be required to deliver the product, make customers aware of it and convince them to buy it. All this while making a handsome profit – yes, that is what business is ultimately about and investors are keen to understand how you will convert their small contribution over time into significant financial gains. Revolutionizing the world is rarely included, but sound judgment about the customer, the product, the business model and marketing usually is.

Many wannabe entrepreneurs aspire to become someone like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs; either to become famous, or to make more money or sometimes just for the fun of being an entrepreneur. Though millions of us start-up (or at least think of starting-up) the surprising truth is only 5-8 percent of us are able to turn our start-up into a scalable business.

The most obvious reason entrepreneurs give for their failure is by saying “Not everyone can become like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg.” It’s sad to see entrepreneurs giving up on their idea too soon, but can this death rate of start-ups be decreased? I believe it can be.

If entrepreneurs are imparted with the right entrepreneurship education, we can have more successful businesses around us that not only make money for its founders but also solve some of the complex problems of our society.

Just like Vidal Sassoon was born to become a hairdresser and Sachin Tendulkar was born to play cricket, similarly some individuals are born to become entrepreneurs. Those who aspire to follow that path should consider entrepreneurship education as a good starting point in their entrepreneurial journey.

Not everyone can become an entrepreneur and one of the best ways to test your capabilities is by reading lot of interviews of entrepreneurs. This will not only inspire you but will provide you with lot of real time problems which an entrepreneur faces. This will provide you an opportunity to judge whether you have it within you to triumph those challenges.

Getting inspired by successful entrepreneurs and business leaders is nice but starting a business to become just like them is wrong. One needs to understand that the market conditions, customer mindset and demand have changed drastically in the last 10 years. Therefore, if we want to create entrepreneurs for the next decade who are going to solve complex problems of the 21st century, they should be provided with the right entrepreneurship education.

I strongly believe that entrepreneurial skills and attitudes can be learned. By seeking entrepreneurship education, potential start-ups not only get to know everything it takes to begin a business but it also provides them with tools and answers to do that.

Recently at a conference, I heard Vinod Khosla saying “Being an entrepreneur was and will always be HOT.”

If you aspire to become an entrepreneur, seek entrepreneurship education as it will accelerate the entrepreneurship process and help you to refine your business and make good use of your skills.

Good luck!

Having a great idea and the motivation to strike-out on your own is a good first step in pursing the feasibility of a business. However, it takes more than motivation and a great idea to get things started. This article will reveal some of the simplest considerations that most would-be business-owners overlook.

The very first thing that should not fall under consideration is venturing out on your own without the proper tools beyond the scope of a great idea. According to statistics provided by the Small Business Administration, over 90% of small businesses fail due to a lack of planning. How many times have you heard or witnessed individuals that sat up over a weekend and wrote a stellar business plan then headed out on Monday morning to seek funding or investors? Impatience is the second thing that needs management. So often “I am tired of working for someone else” is the premise for people to start a business. This frame of mind will almost ensure failure because this approach to business involves looking backwards at getting out of a bad situation.

There is a prevailing philosophy that has to evolve, “Not all people are cut-out to become business-owners”. This is a harsh reality to face in a country such as the United States that prides itself on autonomy and ownership. Starting a business requires a commitment that may or may not pay dividends quickly. The key threat to small businesses is the initial funding or start-up cost and therefore many under-capitalized ventures hit the markets and get that rude awakening.

Before spending your first dollar a best practice is to do your “free research” on the Internet and in public libraries. Read recently published academic studies on the industry in which you plan to pursue. It takes more than just knowing a certain aspect of the business being that your competition may be more well-versed about the industry as a whole. You may want to ask questions such as “What are the regulatory requirements to do business within that particular industry?” You may want to research about “systemic exposure” or how the rest of the economy could or would impact that industry during troubled financial times. It is also a good practice to review some of the strategies of other potential competitors during The Great Recession of 2008. How did the industry leaders survive jn respect to operational changes and sacrifices. It is understandable that this may take several days or even weeks to accomplish, but by applying the best practices initially you will have a clear understanding of what to expect during certain economic times.

It is essential to understand who are the industry leaders within your business channel and what makes them unique. There should be an emphasis on this because your branding and marketing could benefit from such a consideration. A distinguishing characteristic may be customer service, quality assurance, product branding, or even presentation. These may sound trivial, but think about if you were a retailer for mens apparel and you specifically wanted to appeal to young urban males under the age of thirty. Labels equals status in many of these communities so a nice logo on the item that is visible may assist in the popularity and purchase of your garments. Even though this may have more to do with marketing and brand positioning, this is a must have against the competition.

However, before we get to marketing and branding there are other things needing consideration such as your mind-set, ego, time-line, available start-up capital, and feasibility. After you have trolled through the data and information from your research, the next step is the feasibility study. It is suggested that you do this prior to writing a business plan. In this way you can quickly determine whether or not you can enter the particular market or not and if so, at what level. A common mistake for new business people is to envision competing with the industry leaders. This is an ideal way to go broke quickly. In stead, set more realistic goals for yourself and get the notion out of your head that the Internet is going to make your business global. Facebook and the other social networks became popular because they were free to the end-user first and while trying to figure out a way to capitalize or convert those users into revenue. This would be a bad business-model to follow. Think about your region and the local competition first to see how much it would cost for you company to operate for the first 3 to 5 years without constant revenue.

Again this will require more local research this time on your specific region and take not of the deviations between your first broader macro research and the more localized micro research. The deviation between those two areas may actually become the niche that needs filling. In this way you can actually have a specialized niche within the region and a hybrid on a larger scale. Now, you may ask yourself “Why?” Simply put, the goal is to avoid what others are already doing in the sense that giving a “Thankyou” to a customer in a better way that the competitor is not enough. Another temptation to avoid is the centric mind-set that the business and industry has to behave according to your own belief or philosophy. This strategy rarely works out in a positive way. You have seen these business owners that rarely listens to their customers and as a result they have a revolving door of both customers and employees and the business stagnates and does not grow.

Growth must have a major role in the definition of your business because that is the incentive to attract customers, employees, and even investors. As a potential business-owner you will have to cleanse your mind of working for a company and view your company as your tangible boss. This may sound counter intuitive, but the cascade is like this, the economy drives the consumer or businesses that drive behavior which drives your company which eventually drives you to make the right decisions to meet the demand.

So far you have done your research, and you know how much it will cost you to compete in your local market. The next thing is to consider your liabilities as it relates to the company. You may use this also to determine what form of business ownership will work for you. It is a good business practice to incorporate whenever possible and in some states there are differences in levels according to projected revenues. Incorporating also gives you more protection than a DBA or partnerships. At this point you will learn another strategy that many successful business-owners do, delegate tasks that require professional expertise to professionals with their fields. A good business attorney, accountant, and business consultant are essential for start-ups. This is a gap that many would-be business people fall through the cracks. Another benefits is that these professionals may also assist in giving information that may be crucial in developing a comprehensive business proposal. They can help with the work you have done to reflect the requirements needed.

In review, you have your research, feasibility study, chosen your business ownership type, adjusted your expectations, hired professionals that know the laws and regulations better than yourself and you are ready to get started on the business proposal. Not so fast, “Where are your customers?” You guessed it, marketing research needs to take place for the particular individuals or companies that will use your products and or services within your area or online. One question to ask yourself, “How much will it cost me to contact a potential customer before a sale is completed?” And secondly, you need to discover the best way to contact these people or businesses. The prevailing statistics are that radio advertising a person is a passive-listener and only hears about every fourth word, direct mail only about 9% responds. Signs and other ad-hoc methods vary and television may be expensive depending on stations and providers. This means that a considerable budget may need to exist in order to solicit business. Again, this is another area where many would-be business people fall off the wagon and failure is waiting to catch them.

There is not an exact science to forecasting revenues so the goal is to have a very plausible theory and approach to this process. Avoid the temptation of raising expectations too high as some did in the dot com era for instance and went broke. The increases in expected revenue should be modest and function on the Standard Rule of 10, meaning that expenses should never go over 10% of revenue. Now, there are some businesses with a lower profit margin at 50%, but that is akin to paying US$10 for every US$20 received in revenue. As you can see pricing strategies for your products and or services are important and trying to make profits off of volume only works for those entities with high capacity transactions. This is the reason why 99 Cent Stores do so well low inventory cost and high turn-over of products. As a foot-note the difficulty with starting a business with very low prices is that it usually attracts the cost-conscious customer who is rarely brand-loyal and will use a comparable competitor. You see this behavior in customer that may shop at Wal-Mart, but purchase other specific items at the 99 Cent Stores. The danger in depending on these cost-conscious customers is that when prices rise they usually leave. Therefore, your pricing model needs to be established as feasible to sustain the business based on the value-added customer that you can possibly up-sell items or services. This is essential to your company’s growth and expansion.

Successful entrepreneurs are known to have been inspired or are known to have learned something or the other from famous personalities. Whether it is another prosperous businessman who might be minting money or some popular celebrity, entrepreneurs might learn a lot of valuable things without even realizing it that can help them with their business. If we consider someone like Ralph Lauren, business owners might wonder what they could possibly learn about entrepreneurship from fashion designer who has his own a Polo clothing line.

Well, for starters Ralph Lauren is somewhat of an entrepreneur himself. As for entrepreneurs who are not having much success marketing their business, there is one particular thing they can learn from something Ralph Lauren did a while back. Ralph Lauren purchased the entire ad space in the iPad application of the New York Times, sometime during September, the previous year. This was quite an ingenious marketing campaign by Ralph Lauren because throughout September, his advertisements would pop up whenever users accessed the app.

Thus, Ralph Lauren ended up teaching entrepreneurs how the placement of advertisement in smartphone applications can act as a successful marketing campaign. Ad space can be conveniently and affordably purchased by any entrepreneur of today; all they need to do is contact the creator of the app.

Hence just like Ralph Lauren, business entrepreneurs can ideally attract their target audience with this convenient method of spreading their advertisements and there is not much effort involved. In comparison to the people who presently use computers, a more substantial of them are smartphone users. Thus, Ralph Lauren has taught entrepreneurs that while it might be important for them to market their business online; they should also set up a presence on mobile devices too. Entrepreneurs will be able to find numerous smartphone apps related to their business if they do enough research.

Considering the fact that this marketing campaign has been used by such a wealthy fashion designer, entrepreneurs might believe that it will be rather costly for them to try it out. However the fact is that if entrepreneurs want their advertisement to show up on a smartphone app, they will not really have to pay much to the app creator. In fact, people might already be posting their business advertisements to other sources at the same price. So why shouldn’t, they make use of such an effective marketing campaign that has been proven to work by a prosperous personality within the fashion industry.

Thus as far as increasing the amount of target traffic their business is presently attracting, following in the footsteps of Ralph Lauren and giving this marketing campaign a try can prove to be fruitful. The traditional sources of advertising have already lost their touch, and online advertising alone will not be as effective. Thus, entrepreneurs have ended up learning a lesson and a secret that will help them in their entrepreneurship venture from someone they least expected. Entrepreneurs have learned from Ralph Lauren how mobile devices can play a role in improving the prosperity of their business and increasing the scope of the audience they are targeting.

The general aviation sector has been in the doldrums for quite a while. Some blame this on increased FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) regulations, much of which occurred after 9-11 to protect airports from potential terrorists, unfortunately these increased security requirements and increased regulations have stifled the general aviation (GA) sector. The economic crashes of 2000 and 2008 didn't help, although in 2003 the economy was flying high thanks to Bush Tax Cuts and stimulus, then it hit a wall again and didn't really do well until the run-up just before the 2008 crash.

The GA sector has only slightly recovered since then but not back to its 2003 highs. When Obama got elected he railed against Corporate Jets and Corporate Fat Cats which hurt jet sales and new aircraft sales. Remember when congress went after the Auto Makers for flying their corporate jets to Washington DC to beg for bailouts? Public sentiment against GA was at an all-time low.

All of this had hurt aircraft cleaners and jet detailers – it made it tough to make money, but it looks like things are changing and the number of GA Aircraft is increasing. This new Trump Administration is pro-Aviation unlike the Obama Administration. Cutting corporate taxes will also help GA and jet sales. It looks like clear skies ahead for those in the General Aviation services business.

There was a great article in AIN – Aircraft International News – December Edition titled; "UBS Bizjet Index Sees Post-election Surge," by Chad Trautvetter posted on December 12, 2016 which noted the following facts; The new Trump Administration in the US is widely seen as a positive, with 61 percent of those surveyed expecting the outcome of the US presidential election to ultimately be positive for the business jet market, while 11 percent don't see a positive impact and 28 percent are uncertain.

In fact the article went on to note that there was an increase of between 44-49% increased orders for private jets over last year. Many of those aircraft will be delivered by 2018, and the backlog will increase used aircraft sales and current new inventory. More aircraft certainly means more aircraft to clean and more new aircraft means more corporate detailing customers as well. Meanwhile, along with the fractional jet market, we see jet air-taxi services on the increase as well as Uber style aircraft ride-sharing plans smaller companies can buy into. All of this means the GA sector is ready to take off again and that's good for business.

To hustle or not to hustle?

Currently the use of the word “hustler” is thrown about as a positive way to describe oneself as having an entrepreneurial streak, or starting a new business.

From the 1800s, hustler meant “thief”, and in particular, someone who was aggressive with their victims. Nowadays, the dictionary still holds this definition true, describing a hustler in a negative light: a thief or criminal; a gold-digger or prostitute; an overly pushy salesman (OED, 2015). In modern music (mostly ghetto rap), “to hustle” refers to a way of making money and doing it against all odds. Maybe the latter is where startups are drawing their inspiration from?

Hustlers work for immediate gratification to obtain cash-flow, without a long-term vision. It’s about a foot in the door, a constant drive to keep making the money – it’s all about making the next sale.

As an entrepreneur myself, I would NEVER like to be referred to as a “hustler”.

Why hustle when you can “undertake enterprise”?

Being an entrepreneur may involve overcoming odds and making money, but it’s definitely NOT hustling. Startup entrepreneurs find ways of making money, but do so ethically and in terms of a defined growth strategy. Entrepreneurs build a business, own the business, delegate, strategize, and think ahead. They link things – they are connectors: businesses, ideas and people. Entrepreneurs create systems, contingency plans, they develop others, and (probably most noteworthy) entrepreneurs consider exit planning.

The actual meaning of entrepreneur?

It stems from Old French, “to undertake enterprise”. What’s enterprise? Well, that’s work. The characteristics of an entrepreneur were added in the 15th century: a person with “adventurous disposition, readiness to undertake challenges, and a spirit of daring” (Harper, 2015). In recent definitions, “One who undertakes an enterprise; one who owns and manages a business; a person who takes the risk of profit or loss” (OED, 2015).

Which side of the coin are you on?

Hustler vs Entrepreneur…

Semantics matters

Words change in meaning across time – that’s a common thing. But shifting from a negative use to a positive usage (pejoration to amelioration) is very rare. Between entrepreneur and hustler, we need to reflect. From a linguistics perspective, something to watch here. From a new business perspective, you should decide which side of the coin you’re on.

I guess the choice lies in this –

Are you undertaking an ethical enterprise as owner and manager, with adventurous disposition, readiness to undertake challenges, spirit of daring taking risks of profit and loss?

Yes?

Then you’re an entrepreneur NOT a hustler.

~A.

—

Direct references:

-Harper, D. (2015). Etymology Dictionary Via http://www.etymonline.com/

-OED – Oxford English Dictionary (2015). Via http://www.oed.com/

Women in India have come a long way from being just ‘homemakers’. The world now sees them with a different eye and a new respect. Women entrepreneurship in India has come a long way from women working only part time.

Successful women entrepreneurs in India have made their presence felt in every field be it the world of politics, music, fashion, movies and entertainment or business. Hindu scriptures defines women as the embodiment of ‘Shakti’ and she lives up to image every time, whether it is problem solving at home or running a successful business.

Here we have listed 5 of the most successful women entrepreneurs in India who continue to inspire us with their versatile abilities, persuasiveness, problem solving abilities, willingness to take chances and risks and the ability to motivate people around them.

Dr. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw: Also known as the ‘Biotech Queen’ of India, Dr. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is listed in the Forbes magazine as 50 most powerful women in International Business. Starting with a capital of just Rs.10,000 with her garage as her office, she made her first product in the year 1978. Her company Biocon has since then touched new height in the field of biotechnology. An active social activist she is a true role model for aspiring entrepreneurs in India

Indira Krishnamurthy Nooyi: No list of successful women entrepreneurs in India is complete without the mention of Indira Nooyi, the CFO and president of PepsiCo. Her ability to make quick decision and tenacity to follow up has enabled her to make PepsiCo one of the biggest brands in the market today. Indira Nooyi is listed as the fourth most powerful women in the world by Forbes Magazine.

Ekta Kapoor: We all have a love hate relationship with the famous “saas-bahu” serials on the Television but we cannot at any level ignore them. This bubbly and extremely professional creative director of Balaji Television has won the hearts of millions of Indian women. She is one of the most dynamic and successful women entrepreneurs in the Indian television industry. Also known as the ‘Queen of Indian Television Industry’ she started her career in with the sit-com Hum Panch. According to her the reason of her success is to be closely involved with all the aspects of the serial including picking up the artists herself.

Neelam Dhawan: When we are discussing the successful women entrepreneurs in India we cannot leave the leading name in the IT sector out of it. Neelam Dhawan, Managing director of Microsoft India, has carved a special niche for herself in the IT industry. She looks after the company’s sales and marketing division of the country in India.

Shahnaz Hussain: She is a part of this list of one of the top women entrepreneurs in India because she started form nothing and has made her company, Shahnaz Hussain Herbals a $100 million enterprise. She broke the traditional advertising myths and the popularity of her company is solely due to mouth-to-mouth publicity only. Shahanz was awarded the Padma Shri by the Govt. of India in 2006.