Diligence and Innovation: A Brief History of Entrepreneurship in the US

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geoffrey-byruch-rushBartering and sales comprise the cultural fabric of the USA. Early in our lives, we look for one another’s strengths and unique qualities that indicate talent and interest. This is what one will bring to the negotiation table and exchange it for dollar bills. Then, the currency is spent on improving skills whereby one can eventually charge a premium price. The entrepreneur takes this exchange to the next level still.

Recognizing others’ positive regard for their talent, skill, or invention, the entrepreneur develops a plan to expand reception for greater profits. Several well-known developments identify this spirit of innovation and determination; the Gold Rush of 1849, the Wright Brothers’ airplane and Henry Ford’s automobile assembly line.

~ Gold Rush of 1849 ~ New Jersey carpenter James Wilson Marshall, while working at the Sutter Mill in what would become Sacramento, California, discovered gold nuggets. Throughout 1849, hopefuls traveled from all over the world to try their luck at finding some for themselves and became known as the ’49ers. By 1850, the surface land was practically depleted of the gold rendering it unreachable by commoners’ means. By then, the population of the area had soared.

Many industrious individuals and families who may not have dug up a golden nugget, managed to successfully plant roots for their own businesses that catered to the daily needs of the lucky ones and the determined. The Gold Rush of 1849 lends testament to the entrepreneurial snowball effect when people pursue a promising venture.

~ WRIGHT BROTHERS ~ The Wright Flyer successfully sailed the winds for 59 seconds on December 17, 1903. It was the product of years of toil and experimentation by Wilbur and Oliver Wright and many others around the globe who had tried during similar periods, answering the call to contests and challenges no doubt engendered by venture capitalists of their day. Production, research and development and sales were nothing new to the Wright brothers. Though neither of the two finished high school, they had jointly owned a news publication and a bicycle repair shop that they had established themselves. They also sold their own bike model. They later relocated to Paris, France where they fulfilled orders for their plane for a price.

~ MODEL-T FORD ~ Henry Ford, T.A. Edison’s next door neighbor in Florida, produced his first assembly line vehicle on December 01, 1913. Fittingly enough, his innovative idea developed from observing the processing of slaughtered animals for human consumption and wheat grain processing; namely, the assembly line format and the conveyor belt, respectively. Because it was the first Ford vehicle built on the assembly line, the Model-T Ford became the most abundant and the most popular. Its initial price was $850 and it was only available in black. Henry’s goal was to make it available to a wider market share by producing more of them without compromising quality.

Debunking Common Myths About Entrepreneurial Leadership

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geoffrey-byruch-mythsWhether you are an entrepreneur or not, limiting beliefs can stop us from being successful. Most of these statements are not easy to prove wrong, which keeps some entrepreneurs stuck in their careers.

How many times have you heard this expression? ‘Whether you believe you can or you can’t, you are right.’

We base our actions on the perception of ourselves, which depends on our beliefs. We will present some of the most popular statements that struggling entrepreneurs make, so you can avoid them and build your empire.

Leaders Shouldn’t Show Expose Their Weaknesses

People know that nobody was born being perfect. Yet, we use to see experts as someone who doesn’t have to improve their skills anymore. If a master makes questions and listens to others, he could not be a leader. It cannot be further from the truth.

People who have fewer flaws are the ones who have exposed many problems over their careers. Being an entrepreneur involves exposing fifty weaknesses at the same time. The person who solves the biggest problems becomes the leader.

An expert has to reinvent oneself and spot his weaknesses before a competitor comes and outworks him.

Entrepreneurs work in the business

Working in the business is quite common among beginner entrepreneurs, who are working on the service in person. The problem with this approach is the lack of leverage. Each person has a customer capacity to deliver the best quality results. Since resources are limited, any customer acquired after that limit will make the customer experience worse.

You should work on your business as a CEO, which involves using your capacity to lead a team of experts. Qualified human resources and automated software have almost limitless capacities, being able to serve as many clients as necessary.

In short, the executive leads the team, and the team offers the service to the public.

There can only be one leader

The purpose of every leader should be turning the team members into leaders for their own team. If the entrepreneur wants extraordinary results, the team should not limit to follow the fixed objectives. It is vital to have leadership values such as initiative, over-delivering, communication, and management.

The Importance of Transparency in Entrepreneurship

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There are many factors that go into having successful entrepreneurship. Aside from time and dedication, there must be a large degree of transparency. As an entrepreneur, it’s important to be completely open about your business’s performance, history, motivations, operations, and other information. Offering more transparency in these areas encourages consumers and even investors to be more loyal:

 

Social Media Transparency

One of the easiest and most convenient platforms to be transparent with consumers is social media. This is the best place to share personal thoughts and ideas to connect with consumers. Social media is also a great platform to learn of the likes and dislikes of those interested in your products or services. Nowadays, many people use social media platforms for questions, comments, and reviews. By having an active role in your social media platforms, you are better able to access the wants, needs, and constructive criticism.

 

Transparency From Within

Although remaining open and honest with consumers is very important, it’s equally imperative to be transparent from within your business. If your employees don’t feel the company is transparent with them, then they’ll have a hard time portraying transparency to the marketplace. Be open about the progress, risks, and opportunities of the company. This will encourage employees to be transparent and passionate about business operations to consumers. 

 

Distrusting Corporate Business

Over the years, the public has grown a bit distrusting of corporations. Many don’t feel corporations are often completely honest with their customers. To aid this, it’s important for businesses to gain back their trust. In order to do this, it’s imperative to be as transparent as possible. As an entrepreneur, you need to show that your main goal isn’t just about making a profit and make it a point as to why customers should trust your business. 

 

Make Information Available

In today’s day and age, everyone expects information to be available in seconds. If information about your company isn’t available with just a few clicks on their laptop or phone, customers will be less interested in your business and feel you have something to hide. In order to avoid customer distrust, be as open as possible and have your businesses information at the ready. 

As transparency becomes a larger demand in entrepreneurship, many more companies must make it a priority. The future of business will see companies becoming more open about their operations and motivations, building greater trust with their partners, investors, and customers.

The Age of Entrepreneurship

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When people think about entrepreneurs just starting in the business world, it often seems like a younger person’s game. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Entrepreneurship can come at any age and at any point in your lifetime. The key is to have the right idea that will thrive and create success.

Although many people may think it’s best to start at a young age, it’s important to note that the medium age of successful founders is around the 40 to 50 range. Beginning as an entrepreneur in this industry at a later age brings a more extensive amount of life and work experience.

One of the biggest aspects of becoming an entrepreneur later in life, is you have the time to play and become more financially stable. Young business owners may not always have the income to fall back on if their ideas falter, which is why waiting until you have the support both financially and within your family or a spouse, could help your chances of success drastically.

Another aspect of beginning entrepreneurship later in life is most people have experienced failure in some way by this point in their lives. Having the opportunity to experience failure gives you an edge over others in not being afraid of your ideas floundering. Great entrepreneurs have personality traits in which they can keep their eye on the prize despite bumps in the road.

The skills and life lessons you learn in your early years of being a businessman or woman helps to shape the kind of leader you will be later in life. Because you will make many mistakes along the way, it creates a stronger and more confident business mind, thus, making this the perfect time to start your own business. When you can take a tip from entrepreneurs who have come into the game later in life, you can see how the experience has helped them become more successful.

Don’t let your age define how you continue throughout the business world. Just because you didn’t begin a company at a younger age doesn’t mean it’s too late and you won’t become successful in your endeavors. If anything, waiting until later in life means you are more prepared and have the experience to become successful in your chosen path for entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship Success: Leave Your Ego at Home

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People often ask the question, “what does it take to become a successful entrepreneur?” The truth is, certain personality traits and qualities help in shaping a successful entrepreneur. Although some of these traits are instilled in us from birth, many can be learned and developed over time. It’s essential to understand the specific qualities that make an entrepreneur successful. One of the most significant aspects of successful entrepreneurship is removing your ego from your business.

Starting a new business is hardly a feat for one person. Although there are leaders out there who believe they can do it better and all by themselves, it simply is not true and will not create a sustainable business. Entrepreneurs can’t let their egos get in the way of the growing business. It’s essential to assemble a team of hard workers and leaders who understand and share the same goals and vision you do. Creating a support team of people who help you every step of the way will ensure success in your business.

Every position in a business is just as important as the next. Even though some founders may think that because it is their idea and vision, they are the most crucial component of the company. This is, quite frankly, very untrue and anyone who has worked in a business setting understand that success only comes when people work together and no one believes they are above the rest.

You can take some great tips from the book by Michael Strasner, Mastering Leadership, Shift the Drift and Change the World, on entrepreneurship and either embracing success or instead, leaving it behind when your time is up. The key to growing your ideas and business is making sure to commit to your idea fully. Once you do this and realize there is no fallback plan and this idea is the end goal, it will be far easier to pour your entire self into it. And, not just yourself, but your team.

No matter if you win or lose, creating a teamwork environment in which you can utilize your traits and leadership skills to share your vision and goals, is successful and can inspire others to follow their dreams of entrepreneurship.

 

Entrepreneurial Ideas for Success

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It’s evident that all entrepreneurs want to be successful in what they are creating and putting out into the world. But not all entrepreneurs are successful the first few times around and need to continue to have the mentality to push forward through their failures in order to create something great. In our current economy and all different economy’s, it’s essential for entrepreneurs to develop products and ideas that will move us forward.

Entrepreneurship should produce and propel our economic growth. It’s the reason why we need entrepreneurs in this world to make sure that we can create new ideas that are productive. Some fail to consider this aspect and do so because they want to be their boss and have a money making product.

When starting your own business, it can be very much formed around a personal choice. This is true for many entrepreneurs, but along with the personal choice must come value. There should be value in the reasoning of starting your own business and creating a product. Think of your audience and what the value of your product and company is to them. It’s important to fully consider your audience because they will be the reason your business succeeds or fails.

You may think people know what they want, but in all seriousness, it’s not necessarily true. Part of being an entrepreneur is showing people what they want and need. This can be done by either creating something entirely new or refining something they already know and updating it. This can help your audience to see the product they already know in a different light. Your audience needs to know the value in what you are creating and find it useful and something that will fulfill their needs.

Many entrepreneurs are bogged down by the aspect of beating their competitors and being able to compete in a particular market. The real part is to make sure your potential customers see value in what you are offering and find that it excels past your competitors. Competition should come second to what your customers need and what they will want to invest in.

It’s essential to remember that your product must have value in order to succeed. Creating something that is going to add to our economic growth is one of the best reasons to become an entrepreneur. Of course, everyone will have personal reasons attached to it, but if you can add value and satisfy the needs of your audience, you can have a higher chance to succeed.

 

Shared Personality Traits of Entrepreneurs

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To be an entrepreneur, there are certain things that you will have to be good at that most people have not learned in life. The skills of being an entrepreneur are not the same as even the highest level employee. Once you have learned these shared traits of highly successful entrepreneurs, you will be able to find the massive success that these other business owners have found.

Persistence
When you are trying to start your own business, it is not going to happen overnight. You need to make sure that you are in it for the long run. If you have the skill of persistence, you will surely have a better chance of taking your dreams and turning them into a reality. The most successful entrepreneurs knew that setback were just a part of the journey. They persisted until they were able to find their own version of success.

The will to win
When you have the will to win, it will give you the confidence you need to approach vendors, venture capitalists, potential partners, and manufacturers. If you have the will to win, you will not have any trouble waking up early in the morning and staying late in the office to put in the ridiculous hours that you need for massive success.

Knowing failure isn’t an option
Deciding that failure isn’t an option is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle. You will have a mindset that will keep you from giving up. When you choose to quit is the only time that you truly fail as an entrepreneur. You have the power to work as hard as you want and push through all of the obstacles as long as you know that failure isn’t an option.

Creativity
You need to have a great deal of creativity to make it as an entrepreneur. It will take creative problem-solving skills and a creative mindset when thinking about marketing, new products, and new services. If you are not very creative to begin with, it can be a great idea to partner with an individual who is very creative.

These are some traits that many entrepreneurs share. If you feel like you are lacking some of these traits, you can always learn skills that will help you move forward as a business owner.

Incorporating Innovation into Your Business

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With new inventions and the constant creation of new technology, innovation has become an essential part of the culture we live in. In order to continue innovation and to generate new product, design, ideas, we need to incorporate innovation as a core part of your company’s culture. Businesses must begin to look into adopting the innovation and entrepreneurship mentality if they want their company to succeed and move forward into the future. Here are just a few of those ways businesses can incorporate innovation into their culture.

Due to the fact that we live in the digital age that keeps on changing and moving into the future, companies that do not operate with innovation, adjusting to digital changes will not succeed. Digital disruption is reinventing how companies, products, goods, and services operate because of new technological advances. If a business does not utilize and create, they will not be able to survive in the future.

Teamwork is an essential part of innovation. In order to create new ideas, working with others within your company will guarantee a more successful invention of what your business has to offer. Building a team of employees to execute these tasks will give the opportunity to utilize different outlooks and ideas from different people and also allude to the success of future growth.

Human Resources will play a large part in creating a diverse and widely spread culture of employees. It is already their job to do so and look for potential employees with different backgrounds, but this will be essential to the innovation culture a business should be striving towards. With diverse backgrounds come different ideas and great ways to push the company forward.

One of the biggest things your company can do is appoint a Chief Innovation Officer. They will oversee and coordinate innovation teams and initiatives across the company. Although these types of roles are only seen more so within companies dealing more on the scientific side of innovation, we will start to see this position become more incorporated throughout companies across the board looking to survive and thrive.

While there are many different ways to incorporate this type of thinking into your company culture, it’s important to get all of your department heads on board, understanding what the goals for the future are. For the continued survival of businesses, entrepreneurship mentality and innovation is key to the overall culture.

How Entrepreneurs Deal with Failure

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Being an entrepreneur means you will deal with failures many times during your career. This is not always the case for everyone, but more often than not, you will, unfortunately, fail at some point. The key to failure as an entrepreneur is learning how to handle that failure, pick yourself back up, and start again. As it is with life, the way you deal with these setbacks shapes the person and professional you are and want to be. Thankfully, there is a large number of entrepreneurs who came before you, sharing their wise words of wisdom for pressing on and dealing with your failures gracefully.

Just because you will experience failure doesn’t mean it’s going to be a significant failure. Unfortunately, most new businesses will fail within their first few years of starting out. But failure can also come in the form of other losses, such as the loss of a big client. It is essential for entrepreneurs to learn from these failures which takes us right to our first lesson.

Taking the time to write down a list of the decisions you made when you failed will help to understand what you could have done better and will do better next time. It creates your failure into a learning experience in order for you to grow from the setback. Handwriting the list will help the points sink in and stick with you for future growth.

Giving yourself time to destress from the situation will also create a better atmosphere and positive outlook for yourself and your company. Entrepreneurs are busy people that work at a very fast pace, high-stress environment. Giving yourself mental clarity by removing yourself from the failure can give you time to rethink, reevaluate, and figure out your next move.

If you look into some of the most famous entrepreneurs and how they started out, you will find that most of them repeatedly failed time and time again before they became successful. Their biggest early failures paved the way for some of the most successful companies in the world. It is essential to remember that failure is just a roadblock and stepping stone on the way to success. It is necessary in order to weed out entrepreneurs who are willing to pick up the pieces and keep going and the ones who do not have the mental strength to do so and become successful.

Building A Network For Your Business

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Building a proper social network is essential for the success of any business. Very little can be done by only one person. Every entrepreneur needs a few connections to help the various moving parts of a business to run as smoothly as possible. One person can’t possibly handle outreach, public or human relations, advertising, product or service development, and so on. There’s nothing wrong with getting a little help from an adequate and knowledgeable network of peers and associates. The following are ways to build the right network around your business.

Establish Relationships
Put yourself out there and make some powerful business acquaintances. Every friend you make regarding your business will, undoubtedly, help your cause, whether you befriend someone who works in digital marketing or mingle with fellow entrepreneurs. Different people come from various backgrounds, bringing a wide variety of skills to the table. Even if you don’t enlist these people for your own entrepreneurial purposes, it is beneficial to surround yourself with others that have similar goals. Perhaps you will find yourself in a symbiotic relationship, helping others as they help you achieve your business goals.

Segment the Network
Once you have added a fair amount of people to your social network, you should keep everything in working order by segmenting the pieces of your network into various categories. These are a few of the labels you can place on people within your network, based on how they affect your business:

  • Advocates
  • Helpers
  • Lurkers

How you organize your network is completely up to you, depending on your own unique and individual goals, however, as long as a system is in place you will be able to easily recall and locate contacts anytime you need to call upon someone within your network.

Share The Wealth
People within your network are more likely to help your business succeed if they also benefit from your success. Make sure to share the credit and revenue you gain with those who deserve it. Anyone who’s help you’ve employed to make your business-related dreams a reality should probably receive a pat on the back, especially your own employees. This will only strengthen your network by building a sense of trust between you, your business, and its associates.