7 Essential Steps to Leap into Entrepreneurship

Starting a business can be a scary thing. You give up the stability (albeit perceived) of a steady income with benefits. You put your career on hold. You sacrifice significant time and energy for the first several years just to get up to your former corporate salary. You enter a risky area where most people fail within five years.

So the real question should be, “Is it worth it?”

I am here to say yes! Do you really want your life time legacy to be ‘Working for someone else = building someone else’s assets’? Let’s start with the why you need to make it happen.

Los 10 factores que llevan a la muerte de las startups

El Instituto del Fracaso presentó los resultados del primer estudio que revela por qué fracasan los emprendimientos de base tecnológica en México.

La semana pasada se celebró en Ciudad de México el cuarto aniversario de FuckUp Nights, el movimiento global que busca compartir historias de fracaso en los negocios.

4 Crucial Stages Of Startup Growth

To be successful it is important to understand the different stages of business growth and what it takes to be an entrepreneur.
 There are a lot of unknowns and uncertainty when it comes to startups. For example:



What defines a growing startup as compared to an early-stage one?

What are the
 different phases startups go through before becoming multi-million dollar enterprises?

How do you know if a company has “unicorn” potential to become the next Uber or
 Facebook?


In this article, we will discuss four crucial stages to startup growth which will answer these questions.

Funding Gets You Started, Revenue Sets You Free

There is increasing pressure on business models and the landscape for edtech entrepreneurs is changing. Which companies will survive?

K-12 Edtech Funding, '10-'15

K-12 Edtech funding increased by 5x over the past five years

So much has changed—yet there’s still so much to prove.

6 Must Have Marketing Tools When Starting a New Business

So you want to start a business? There’s definitely a few Marketing Tools you’re going to need to get started. I know you’re wondering, well, what exactly do I need? There’s an enormous amount of marketing materials out there that you can choose from, but you want to choose the best ones that will give you the best return and fit best for your company. And if you’re just getting started you don’t need a ton of stuff.

Here are 5 must have marketing tools that all entrepreneurs and small businesses need:

A Logo

First, and foremost, you’re going to need a logo. Your logo is how clients will identify with your brand and know who you are. This is the first thing that customers and clients will think of when they think of you. Having a great logo also makes your business look more professional and established.

The Very First Mistake Most Startup Founders Make

Founders face a wide range of decisions when building their startups: market decisions, product decisions, financing decisions, and many more. The temptation is to prioritize these choices over decisions about how to structure their own founding teams. That’s understandable, but perilous. Our research, forthcoming in Management Science, identifies one of those important pitfalls: founder equity splits, i.e., the way founders allocate the ownership amongst themselves when starting their company.

Since 2008, we have studied the equity splits adopted by over 3,700 founders from over 1,300 startups in the U.S. and Canada. This builds on Noam’s work over the last fifteen years, which has shown that even the best of ideas can falter when the founding team neglects to carefully consider early decisions about the team: the relationships, roles, and rewards that will make the founders a winning team.

What’s wrong with the lean startup methodology?

For the uninitiated, the Lean Startup methodology is a practice for developing products and businesses based on ‘validated learning’, getting customer feedback quickly and often. The process was proposed by Eric Ries in 2011. The objective is to eliminate uncertainty in the product development process. This practice has transformed the way companies are developed.

Instead of building in isolation from users, startups regularly expose the product to customers throughout the development cycle. In doing so, teams are able to make more informed decisions about what to build, from core product functions to what colour a button should be. This sounds sensible, common sensical and is very practical in the making of a digital businesses.

Social Impact B Corporations are on the Rise

New legislation is allowing companies to put social and environmental impact on par with profits.

A little provision was sneaked into the Italian parliament's big end-of-year budget package: it will now be possible for Italian companies, new or already existing, to incorporate as "Società Benefit," or Benefit Corporations. These companies will be officially allowed to put societal benefit on a par with profits.

Where is it easiest to start a business?

New Zealand has emerged as the economy where it is easiest to start a business, according to the World Bank’s new Doing Business report.

The 2016 report assesses economies on 10 topics including access to electricity, paying taxes and trading across borders. The ease of starting a business measure assesses the paid-in minimum capital requirement, number of procedures and the time and cost for a small- to medium-sized limited liability to start-up and begin formal operation.

New Zealand tops the chart with a near perfect score of 99.96. This is courtesy of a number of factors, including the requirement of only 1 procedure (the global average is over 7) and total time of only half a day – the global average on this factor is over 20 days.

Macedonia follows New Zealand in second place, just 0.1 behind. Canada completes the top 3, with a score of 98.23.

Eastern European and Eurasian nations feature strongly on the list, including Armenia in 5th, Georgia in 6th, Azerbaijan in 7th and Lithuania in 8th. Jamaica, Hong Kong and Singapore complete the top 10.

NOTE CREDIT: https://agenda.weforum.org/2015/10/where-is-it-easiest-to-start-a-business/?utm_content=buffer40f51&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

The Importance of Young Firms for Economic Growth

Nearly eight years since the beginning of the Great Recession, the American economy finally gained back all of the jobs lost during the economic downturn.

While this is positive news, underlying structural concerns remain, resulting in historically low labor force participation, high rates of unemployment and underemployment, and a “missing generation” of firms. Together, these factors are a drag on the economy, sapping dynamism.

Policymakers often think of small business as the employment engine of the economy. But when it comes to job-creating power, it is not the size of the business that matters as much as it is the age. New and young companies are the primary source of job creation in the American economy. Not only that, but these firms also contribute to economic dynamism by injecting competition into markets and spurring innovation.

Representing 95 percent of all U.S. companies, businesses with fewer than fifty employees are undoubtedly important to overall economic strength. So too are the relatively few large companies that employ millions of Americans.

Yet, the startup news is not all good. The rate at which new businesses are opening has been steadily declining until 2014. Because of their out-sized contributions, this decline has troubling implications for economic dynamism and growth if it is not reversed.

 Young Firms Drive Job Growth and Economic Dynamism

•New businesses account for nearly all net new job creation and almost 20 percent of gross job creation, whereas small businesses do not have a significant impact on job growth when age is accounted for. 

•Companies less than one year old have created an average of 1.5 million jobs per year over the past three decades.

•Many young firms exhibit an “up or out” dynamic, in which innovative and successful firms grow rapidly and become a wellspring of job and economic growth, or quickly fail and exit the market, allowing capital to be put to more productive uses. 

•Young firms were hit hard during the Great Recession. Even still, from 2006 to 2009, young and small firms (fewer than five years old and twenty employees) remained a positive source of net employment growth (8.6 percent), whereas older and larger firms shed more jobs than they created. 

Declining Startup Rates Threaten Growth 

•New businesses represent a declining share of the business community. According to Census data, new firms represented as much as 16 percent of all firms in the late 1970s. By 2011, that share had declined to 8 percent. 

•Not only are there fewer new firms, but those startups that do exist are creating fewer jobs. The gross number of jobs created by new firms fell by more than two million between 2005 and 2010. 

•Startup activity has been subdued across the country. Firm entry rates were lower between 2009 and 2011 than they were between 1978 and 1980 in every state and Metropolitan Statistical Area except one. 

Pave the Way for an Entrepreneurial Renaissance 

Policies at the federal, state, and local levels influence an individual’s ability to start a business and impact firm growth and survival. Policymakers at all levels can help create an environment more conducive to business formation. 

FEDERAL 

Welcome Immigrants 

Immigrants were nearly twice as likely as native-born Americans to start businesses in 2014. The creation of a visa for immigrant entrepreneurs would allow these job creators to start companies in the United States. 

Remove Regulatory Barriers to Growth 

As regulations build up over time, they represent an increasing and disproportionate cost to entrepreneurial firms. Ideas to counter regulatory accumulation include the establishment of a commission to review and recommend regulatory changes to Congress and implementing sunset dates on major regulations. 

STATE 

Simplify Tax Codes and Payment Systems 

 Taxes matter, but what entrepreneurs are most concerned about is tax complexity. Simplifying tax codes and payment systems so they are easier to understand will relieve what many entrepreneurs feel is a burden on them and their businesses. 

Encourage Competition and Labor Mobility 

Occupational licensing and non-compete agreements can depress entrepreneurship by artificially inflating the cost to enter a new market and restricting the free movement of individuals. Reconsider licensing requirements and adjust non-competes to spur entrepreneurial growth. 

LOCAL 

Cultivate Human Capital  

 Higher levels of education are associated with increased entrepreneurial activity. An analysis of 356 U.S. metropolitan areas found that high school and college completion is important to startup rates.

FOR MORE INFORMATION 

 Click on the links for access to the following resources, or contact Jason Wiens at jwiens@kauffman.org: 

•Watch the Kauffman Foundation’s Three Things sketchbook 

•Read Kauffman Foundation testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Small Business 

•Read the Kauffman Foundation’s Startup Act and Startup Act for the States 

•Read Young Firms are the Job Creators 

•Read Can Millennials Reverse America’s Declining Rates of Entrepreneurship?

Fun and Powerful Ideas to Help Shape Your Company Culture

Successful CEO's share creative company culture practices that have increased productivity, employee loyalty, and profits.
A strong and effective company culture is much more than a kitchenette stocked with free snacks and a ping pong table in the center of the office. While these are nice perks, the outcome may or may not have a significant impact.

It all begins with the intentional development of values and a strong mission statement that's demonstrated throughout the company. But founders don't always reinforce their beliefs with actions that show they truly care about their people. Sometimes, it's just not easy to think of ways to get this important message across.

To get your creative juices flowing, I've gathered some examples from successful CEO's who've seen great results by implementing significant, yet uncomplicated, cultural changes. These changes drive their values and mission while letting employees know how critical they are to the company's success.

Brent Smart, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi NY, hosts monthly "Family Dinners," where he gathers people from different departments, junior and senior, new and old, creating a new mix of people who don't normally work on the same teams.

It's a casual, open, honest, and authentic bonding session where nothing is off the table and where staffers can get to know each other and the leadership on a more personal and human basis. So much so that the dinners often end up at karaoke for dessert.

"An Italian Family Dinner is a brilliant metaphor for the type of culture we need at Saatchi to be a great creative agency," says Smart. "Everyone around one big table; different disciplines and talent surrounding a business problem. There are lots of debates, opinions, and passion." The dinners encourage people to ask any question and hear first hand from the CEO what is happening and why--and the results have been very positive. Saatchi & Saatchi's culture scores have greatly improved because of this transparency.

Don Smithmier, CEO of GoKart Labs, developed a program he calls The GoKart 600 where, for an entire work day once a year, teams gather to invent a new business. They are given six-hundred minutes and six-hundred dollars to work with. Beginning with a real human need or problem, team members do research, create the brand, prototype it, and even try to get some user feedback in the same day. They end the day with an investor pitch and demo.

"We're in the business of creating and growing businesses, so, we are start up nerds," says Smithmier. "Everyone here is interested in either getting their own startup off the ground or teaching our clients how to do it."

The GoKart 600 process reinforces fearless exploration and purposeful innovation, two of the company's key cultural traits. "It also teaches our teams about startups and the pitch process," says Smithmier. "And, it's a way to test new design, prototyping, collaboration, and coding methods on our own work versus doing it on client work."

Smithmier admits that it's a lot of time and money to shut down the client work for a day, but the team sees and appreciates the investment and find it very re-energizing.

Mike Samson, co-founder of crowdSPRING, has implemented many programs at the company including unlimited vacation time and work-from-home Friday's. Samson says these policies effective, not only because a happy employee is a more productive, loyal employee, but because they also reduce stress. "Employee's can easily arrange to be home to wait for the cable guy," says Samson. "We also find that employees actually work longer hours because they appreciate the culture and flexibility."

Taking it a step further, Samson also encourages employees to avoid setting their alarms so they are well rested for the day ahead.

CEO Steve Huey at Capture Higher Ed, a company that helps universities attract, engage, and recruit mission-fit students, says he wanted to create a feeling of "we're all in this together".

"We wanted a laid-back atmosphere that fostered creativity, emphasized communication and honesty, and made people come together more like a family than as coworkers," says Huey.

To accomplish that Huey and his team have created some fun traditions at Capture Higher Ed. They include:

Celebratory company meetings.

The last Friday of each month is a time to welcome new employees, celebrate new partnerships, and reflect on company goals and values. Prior to the meeting, people can submit anonymous questions directly to Huey that get answered during the meeting. They also have a cake that recognizes something that's happened in the past month. "Our last cake read "#750" because the company had debuted as #750 on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing privately held U.S. companies," says Huey. Meaningful achievements are often celebrated with a Champagne toast.

Awesome Cards.

Team members can write an Awesome Card to a co-worker, thanking them for doing something extraordinary. All Awesome Cards are read aloud at the monthly company meeting.

Dog-day Friday (my personal favorite).

Every other Friday employees can bring their dog to work with them.

Build-Your-Own Food Day.

Once a month employees gather to build their own foods like pizzas, quesadillas, or tacos. Everyone brings ingredients and they spend time together in the kitchen cooking and eating together while watching Family Feud. To Huey it resembles a happy family reunion.

What traditions and offerings best represent the values and mission that make your company unique? Share them with us here!

NOTE CREDIT: www.inc.com/marla-tabaka/fun-and-powerful-ideas-to-help-shape-your-company-culture.html?cid=sf01001

Rethinking the relationship between business and society

Business can be the most powerful tool in the world today to create positive change. But too much of the business world is still fuelling inequality and poverty rather than solving it. There’s a long way to go before all companies live up to their potential to change business for good.

One new campaign set up to tackle this is Alquity’s Ubuntu People. The word ‘Ubuntu’ originates from Zulu philosophy and means “I am, because we are”. It is a word that acknowledges and respects the reciprocal nature of all human beings on the planet. I was introduced to the concept by Keith Bete, a brilliant entrepreneur whose company Ubuntuism has received lots of support from the wonderful team at the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship.

The idea behind Ubuntu People is to give socially aware young people the chance to engage in the debate about the future of capitalism. They’re invited to share their thoughts on how to fix capitalism and rethink the relationship between business and society, through video, animation, photography, or any medium they see fit.

This is a topic very dear to my heart, and something we are also working towards with The B Team through our projects such as 100% Human At Work. The Virgin Group’s purpose is to change business for good, and we are always keen to learn new ways to continue making more positive change.

The winning submission will win an inspirational trip to Ghana as an Alquity Ambassador and give one young person the chance to address the UN by taking part in Merit360 - a 2-week summit hosted by World Merit, bringing together millennials from all over the world to tackle the Sustainable Development Goals. I am proud to be one of the judges of the Ubuntu People competition and eager to hear some exciting new ideas about changing business for good.

What do you think is an effective way to rethink the relationship between business and society? To enter the competition and learn more visit http://www.alquity.com/ubuntu-people.

What the New Equity Crowdfunding Rules Mean for Entrepreneurs

The SEC has finally released rules for Title III of the JOBS Act, the equity crowdfunding law. Nearly three years and seven months after the potentially game-changing bill was first signed into law, equity crowdfunding will be available to startups and small companies in 180 days. Yes, we get to wait another half a year before anyone can actually use equity crowdfunding, but at least now we know it will happen.

For those who have run out of Ambien, the hundreds of pages of new rules will provide a welcome sleep aid. But for professionals who plan to use these rules to help companies raise new capital, it is required reading. Bring on the Red Bull.

What does this mean for entrepreneurs? Will startups be able to actually use this law? Let’s take a look at what the new SEC rules say about key provisions, to answer those questions:

1. The JOBS Act says a company can raise up to $1,000,000 with Title III equity crowdfunding. Did the SEC expand this?

Despite the hopes of many of us that the SEC would pull a regulatory rabbit out of a hat and raise the ceiling to $5 million, the limit on what a company can raise through Title III equity crowdfunding remains at $1 million. If a company wants to raise more, there is always equity crowdfunding’s prettier cousin, a Regulation A+ mini-IPO to consider. 

2. What can members of the “crowd” invest?

The law limits investors to (a) the greater of $2,000 or 5 percent of the lesser of their annual income or net worth, if either the annual income or the net worth of the investor is less than $100,000 and (b) 10 percent of the lesser of their annual income or net worth, if both the annual income and net worth of the investor is equal to or more than $100,000.

In both cases, Investors may not invest more than an aggregate amount of $100,000 in one year. The SEC actually tightened up the amounts that can be invested by each individual, which is not good news for entrepreneurs.

3. What happens if a company does not raise its goal amount?

Like many rewards-based crowdfunding campaigns and Regulation A+ mini-IPOs, if a company using the new equity crowdfunding law does not raise the full amount of their funding goal, they do not get to keep any of the money raised, and they lose the out-of-pocket up-front costs. This important provision means setting a realistic goal will become an important part of the equity crowdfunding process for entrepreneurs.

4. Can companies afford to use Title III equity crowdfunding?

The biggest news from the new SEC rules is that the proposed requirement of a full financial audit has been dropped by the SEC for companies using the equity crowdfunding law for the first time. Requiring a startup to spend tens of thousands of dollars on an audit made no sense. The SEC removed that burden, and now a company using the law for the first time must only have reviewed financials to raise more than $100,000, and lesser financial disclosures when raising less than $100,000.

There are still substantial costs, however. Legal fees, compliance costs, funding portal fees, broker-dealer fees and marketing expenses can add up. Without entrepreneurial minded attorneys offering affordable services and innovative businesses offering compliance services for a reasonable cost, equity crowdfunding would still be out of reach for most young companies. Luckily for startups and small businesses, both of the above exist, and will make this law affordable to use for most entrepreneurs.

5. What information has to be disclosed?

A company has to disclose to investors, and file with the SEC, the price of the securities, the method for determining the price, the target offering amount, the deadline to reach the target and whether the company will accept investments in excess of the target.

Companies also must provide a discussion of the company’s financial condition, a description of the business and the use of proceeds from the offering, information about officers and directors and owners of 20 percent or more of the company and annual financial statements.

6. What liability will a company and its officers have under equity crowdfunding?

Equity crowdfunding involves the sale of securities, and not just pre-selling a gadget like on Kickstarter. There are federal and state laws that govern the sale of securities, and if you do something wrong, your company (and its officers and directors) can be sued, and in some cases, could go to jail.

The bottom line is simple: Tell the truth. Under most securities laws including the equity crowdfunding law, being 100 percent truthful and not making misrepresentations of any kind are the keys to not having to bang out license plates in the prison yard with Bernie Madoff.

7. Are the shares sold through equity-crowdfunding liquid?

No. Much like most shares sold through private placements, the shares of stock sold in equity crowdfunding cannot be sold (in most circumstances) for at least one year. There is no marketplace or exchange for these shares, and in all likelihood, never will be unless a company registers with the SEC and becomes a public company.

Will equity crowdfunding work under the new SEC rules? Some may disagree, but I believe there is a workable model here that startups will be able to use to raise capital.

Like every new law, how usable it will be depends on a number of factors. But the reality is that an opportunity like this for startups to raise capital has never existed before, and rather than criticize the law's shortcomings, some of us will work within the laws and rules to find ways to help companies raise funds online in a way they never could before.

NOTE CREDIT: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/252315

Find your next billion-dollar business opportunity

Welcome to a whole new business ecosystem. More venture capital dollars are being directed today toward creating clean energy systems than to harvesting fossil fuels. Organics are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. food market. Seventy percent of college graduates across North America are now looking for jobs with companies that have a good reputation in corporate social responsibility.

Business as usual isn't good enough anymore. This is the dawn of a new wave of "constructive capitalism" that is smarter, more sustainable, and Internet-enabled. And it will change our world.

 There is an unprecedented opportunity today to make money while doing good for the world. When we say, "doing good," we don't mean giving hand-outs. Instead, we mean running a business that makes money by rebuilding the industries that simply don't work anymore. We spent the last three years researching and writing Making Good: Finding Meaning, Money & Community in a Changing World (which is coming out this week) to map out where these opportunities are—and show people how to capitalize on them. We're excited to begin this column with Inc.com and hope to begin a dialogue with the community of entrepreneurs here.

 The following four steps are a simplified process for developing the idea for a billion dollar business—a way to look at the world and zero in on a game-changing solution. You may not initially get the insane traffic an online scrapbooking service like Pinterest has gotten, but you'll build a business that has lasting value in every sense of the word.

Step 1: Pick an Industry

 It may be something you have spent your life getting to know or it may be something you have been interested in following from the sidelines. It doesn't matter. There are opportunities everywhere. Once you have your industry ask yourself what fundamental need does this industry meet?  Does the industry help us travel great distances quickly or does it answer the question of what we do with our trash? Today there is an opportunity to rebuild every industry in a way that does good for the world. The first step is to pick the industry you want to work in and write the core problem it solves in our society.

Step 2: Figure Out What's Broken

 Does the industry rely on cheap labor from the developing world or does their business model rely on doing harm to the environment?  Sometimes the answer to what is broken is found in conversations with people that have been in the industry for years and other times it is commonly understood by almost everyone. Know what is wrong with the industry, what the community says, what the industry insiders say and you will begin to understand the opportunity to make good. How could the industry's needs be met in a better more sustainable way? How could smarter processes, software innovations, new materials change the game? Where are the opportunities for reinvention?

Step 3: Find the Rebuilders

 Once you begin to look, you will find people that are already working on these core questions, rethinking industries from the ground-up. They are one of your greatest assets. They may be answering the question in a different way than you envision answering it, but like you they are just beginning to figure it out—improvising, experimenting, piloting new untested methods, and answering similar questions. Get to know what they are doing, what questions they are asking, and how they are funding themselves. They will not only be a source of new ideas but also begin connecting you with a movement of others working towards the same thing.

Step 4: Figure Out Who Wins

 Understanding who profits as a result of your industry's improved redesign will help you immediately recognize who will fund your work or who will eventually acquire the company you start. Who currently "wins" as a result of this industry being fixed?  You can guarantee that the companies that are already firmly entrenched in answering this question are looking for the ways to recreate, and rebuild in response to our changing environment. The people who stand to profit from your redesign are the people to look to in order to pay your bills and to help you launch the next big company that makes money and changes the world.

NOTE CREDIT: http://www.inc.com/billy-parish-dev-aujla/find-a-billion-dollar-business-opportunity.html

How to Find New Business Opportunities

Generating business ideas is a skill. You can develop a habit to see an economic opportunity in everything around you.

1. Live in the future

Be close to cutting edge technology. Use something that was not available yesterday. Read news about new inventions. Think about products for young people.

The future belongs to wearable computers, self-driving cars, DNA tests, and atom-thin materials. What product and services should exist around these big innovation themes?

Think of some major upcoming change and complete the sentence “if you live in the future ...”. For example, “if you live in the future, all cars are electric” or “if you live in the future, nobody uses cash”. Then build a company to make it happen.

2. Become an expert

There are specialized fields that are not open to anyone from the street. Customs, prisons, medical devices, military contracts, nuclear plants, bridge construction. Typically, you can start a company in these areas only after years of professional experience. Be an insider and you can start a business in a large market with high barrier to entry.

Michael Bloomberg was the head of IT at investment bank Salomon Brothers. He was laid off in 1981 with 10M$ severance package. Bloomberg used this money to start a new company to offer information services for financial organizations. To this day, Bloomberg L.P. is the leader of financial data market.

Be a master of some powerful tool. Learn how to make mobile apps, build online marketplaces, or use data science. Then meet a lot of people, learn about their challenges and see, whether you can use your skill to help.

Be really good at two different things. Medicine and sales, IT and government contracting, culinary arts and retail. Field intersections are full of unique opportunities.

3. Scratch your own itch

Find the problem you want to solve for yourself. Look for things you were not able to find a good solution for. New problems come when something changed in your life. E.g. you start seeing a lot of opportunities when you become a parent.

Same happens in B2B market. You have one company and can not find a good solution for something. You start a second company to solve it and the second one becomes bigger than the original one.

Stripe was founded by Patrick Collison out of frustration from payment solutions he used for his previous projects. Flickr was initially a game that has a need to store user images online.

4. Look for pain points

Look for wasted time and money, inefficiency, suffering, losses. Then start a project to fix it. Learn more about hunger, poverty, epidemics, unemployment, crime, road congestion, pollution, and corruption. Become friends with people who work on these problems for many years.

Generally it is much better to start with a great problem and no solution than with a brilliant solution that solves no problem.

5. Do something much better

Look for things people hate to do. Hunting for rent, parking, getting visas, commute, visiting a doctor. Figure out a better way to do these things.

Use technology to rethink how things should be done. How should construction workers do their job at the time of smartphones? How should hospitals work in the digital age?

There are market leaders with almost monopoly power over market and no incentive to improve. Challenging these monster incumbents can very hard, but sometimes it works. Virgin Atlantic started with a mission to beat British Airways in customer service.

6. Connect cheap supply with rich buyers

Buy low, sell high. This simple formula continues to work for centuries. There is a lot of cheap manufacturing resources in China. There is cheap labor in developing countries. There are cheap buildings to buy or rent. On the other side there are people with disposable income and unmet needs. Connect them!

Freelance marketplaces like Odesk or 99Designs are connecting remote workers in developing countries with companies across the world.

7. Copy and improve

Most ideas are derivative. Many successful businesses started as a copy. Look what you can add to existing ideas. Is it new sales channels, better customer service, better quality?

There always trendy ideas for small businesses. One year coworking spaces and bubble tea stands are popular, then everyone talks about private kindergartens, then there is a wave of SMM agencies.These waves move around the world with a significant delay. You can start a business inspired by one of the current waves. It is safer than unproven innovation and more fun than buying a franchise.

In USA every college has branded merchandise, like hoodies, t-shirts and caps. In Russia, it was not common. One student decided to change that. He started a company to produce university-themed clothing for all colleges in the country. Now you can see students in his clothing at every campus.

8. Travel

Learn about popular and successful businesses in other parts of the world. Every industry has its innovation centers. Fashion business ideas can come from Paris and Guangzhou, software ideas come from Silicon Valley, financial ideas come from New York and London.

In early eighties Howard Schultz was an employee at Starbucks. At the time Starbucks was only selling whole bean coffee. No drinks we offered in the store. On a buying trip to Milan, Italy, Schultz noted that coffee bars existed on practically every street. He learned that they not only served excellent espresso, they also served as meeting places or public squares; they were a big part of Italy's societal glue, and there were 200,000 of them in the country. On his return, he tried to persuade the owners (including Jerry Baldwin) to offer traditional espresso beverages. Howard failed to convince Jerry, left Starbucks and started his own chain of espresso bars. A few years later he bought Starbucks, merged it with his existing coffee bar chain and made Starbucks a global phenomenon.

9. Follow up a market change

New products from big companies create new markets. If you react fast enough, you can claim a part of newly created market.

Venture capitalists understand this rule. That’s why they create special investment funds for Facebook apps, iPhone apps, Google Glass apps, and Bitcoin ecosystem. Whenever there is a big change, entrepreneurs and investors come to take advantage of it.

The same method works for local businesses. Follow up new construction developments like new subway stations, airports, or gentrification processes.

In 1975 MITS developed the first commercially successful home computer, Altair 8800. One student from Harvard decided that selling software programs for Altair 8800 can be a business. He and his friends wrote BASIC interpreter for Altair 8800 and started selling it in partnership with MITS. The company was called Micro-Soft and the student was Bill Gates.

10. Iterate from useless product

Release anything in 1-3 days. Then ask friends what should you change to get them use it. Release an update. Ask again. Repeat until you have a mass-desired product.

Most European countries have the same fairy tale about a “stone soup”.

A lost soldier comes to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty cooking pot. The soldier fills the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they are doing?. The soldier answers that he is making “stone soup”, which tastes wonderful, although it still needs a little bit of vegetables to improve the flavour. The villager does not mind parting with a few carrots to help them out, so that gets added to the soup. More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient. Finally, a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by all.

11. Talk to smart people

There are people who have more good ideas that they can implement themselves. Ask them. You can get not only an idea, but also a set of initial customers.

Entrepreneurs love their own ideas and discount ideas from others. But sometimes the best opportunity can come from someone else.

Elon Musk gave an idea of solar panel installation and service company to his cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive. SolarCity is now a multibillion-dollar public company.

Not so good ways to generate ideas

There are some popular ways to generate ideas that in many cases lead to failed projects. You should be very cautious to use them.

Analogy

Doing X for Y, like “Metropolitan Museum for digital art” is a common way to generate ideas. Unfortunately, most of these ideas fail. Most likely, your market has a very different problem and a solution from some other market would not work. If problems are, indeed, similar, then the original solution could have been extended to your market. “Google for restaurants” is just Google.

Clear you mind from all product visions 

“Product vision”

Many entrepreneurs start with a detailed vision of a new product with all its features. It’s quite easy to imagine a new restaurant concept or a TV Series idea. These visions have little relation to market demand and rarely take off. Most good ideas start with a customer.

Every idea has its drawbacks

Your best ideas will come with some disadvantage. Recognize and acknowledge their weaknesses. You can still pursue them, if there is a good way to counter the drawbacks.

Do not filter out ideas with a lot of hard and unpleasant work. If you can pull it off, there will be less competition and your business will be highly defensible against future entrants.

The presence of successful competitors is typically good, as it proves the existence of demand. If you have a clear differentiation and the proof that this difference can attract enough customers from competitors, you can enter a competitive market.

Sometimes a successful business starts with a tiny initial market. It can work out if (1) the demand is very strong, (2) there is a realistic way to extend your product to a broader market, and (3) you have enough resources to support your way to a broader market.


Ideas come from conversations. Discuss trends, markets and your current ideas with everyone. Fresh insights are guaranteed to follow.

Ideas come from empathy. Learn the pain of other people and you can discover new solutions.

Ideas come from curiosity. How the things should work? How the future will look like?

Ideas come from subconscious. Write down your business area and idea requirements. Then just go do the other work. Few days later a moment of enlightenment can come to you.

NOTE CREDIT: https://medium.com/@earlydays_io/how-to-find-new-business-opportunities-c2f314c7df86

4 Tips for Launching Minimum Viable Products Inside Big Companies

by Debbie Maden

“We have to disrupt ourselves before the market does.” It’s not an uncommon mandate today. Established enterprises need to innovate to keep pace with the more nimble, smaller startups. Perhaps no approach has captured the imagination of big companies yearning to get more nimble than the lean startup method: quickly building and launching minimum viable products — MVPs — and then iterating and pivoting based on market feedback.

Take the example of Beth, Director of e-Commerce & Digital Innovation at a company I’ll refer to as Acme, a 20-year-old, global enterprise. Beth manages a team that’s considered a “startup within the enterprise.”  Acme expects Beth’s team to create $50 million in incremental revenue over the next 3 years by following lean startup principles.

But Acme isn’t a startup. It’s a large, established global firm. Like most big companies, it relies on efficiencies of scale for competitive advantage.  Innovation by definition is inefficient.

However, there are in fact a few tricks of the trade that, if done well, can make an impact for large companies trying to act more like startups.

1. Make true failure a real option. A colleague said to me the other day: “I figured out what bothers me so much about my job. I’m working on a startup team that has no real threat of failure. It should have failed months ago but hasn’t.”

This often happens inside enterprise companies. At Acme, Beth should have a threat of real failure — a salary cut, getting fired, stopping the project, having to fire or reallocate her team. On the flip side, if she wins, she should have skin in the game. If she’s tasked with building $50 million in new revenue, she should be rewarded for success — a raise, equity in the startup part of the business, a promotion.

The point is, the team building the MVP inside an enterprise should truly act like a startup. They should have funding to pay for salaries for the team as well as for any and all expenses, and that funding should come with expectations around performance. If those goals are not met, the funding should run out. If funding runs out, the team no longer has those jobs. I know it’s harsh, but without these consequences, too many skunkworks teams go on and on, and on and on, and on and on…..

2. Get the right people on the bus. Jim Collins, in the classic bestseller Good to Great, famously wrote: “The executives who ignited the transformations from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get someone to take it there. No, they first got the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured out where to drive it.”

Enterprise companies can fool themselves into thinking, “Mary in product will be a great fit for digital product.” Wrong. Mary has spent the last 20 years outfitting brick and mortar stores with physical product. She is not an automatic fit for the digital innovation side of the business.

Real startups are forced to seek new team members from outside their organization. In a “lean” team inside a large company, it’s wise to go through a true hiring strategy exercise. Take the time to get the right people on the bus. Even if it takes longer. Even if it means having to hire people from outside the firm.

3. Get out of the building. Again, take a lesson from actual startups. Startups find it easy to get out of the building, often because they don’t have an office building to begin with. Even as they grow and get their first office space, they aren’t bogged down with executive team meetings and processes, so they have more freedom to get out of the building.

Take the time to identify what hypothesis your MVP is aiming to confirm or disconfirm, and get yourself out of the building, talking to actual users and potential users, and work like mad to confirm or deny this hypothesis.


Note: Technology is not required to do this step. Sure, we could design prototypes, wireframes, scope documents, write code. But none of this is required to get out of the building. All that’s required is understanding who your target market is, figuring out where they hang out, and going there.

4. Create a realistic, disciplined MVP. It didn’t take long for the concept of an MVP to mean different things to different people. Stick to the basics. It’s just meant to be a very simple product that will let you test out the concept. What are the core features you really need? What’s the minimum you can do to deploy the project?

Building MVPs is fun.  When done well, it can be the catalyst that enables enterprise to innovate and keep pace with the smaller more nimble competitors. What doesn’t work is acceding to political requests from different departments who’re all trying to staple their pet project onto your MVP.

Using lean startup principles inside large companies is not impossible – as long as your innovation team acts as like a real startup.

NOTE CREDIT: https://hbr.org/2015/09/4-tips-for-launching-minimum-viable-products-inside-big-companies?utm_source=Socialflow&utm_medium=Tweet&utm_campaign=Socialflow

Top 10 Best Ideas For Setting Goals

By Hilton Johnson

You cannot pick up a book or participate in a training program today without the author or instructor teaching the power of goal setting. Yet, most people today spend more time planning a two-week vacation than planning their lives by setting goals. It’s been said that achieving goals is not a problem–it’s SETTING goals that is the problem. People just don’t do it. They leave their lives to chance…and usually end up broke by the time they reach retirement.
I thought that since this is such an important ingredient for developing a successful network marketing business, this was a good time to share with you some of the greatest thoughts about goal setting that I’ve discovered over the years.
So, here goes…The Top 10 Best Ideas For Setting Goals:

1. Make A List Of Your Values
What’s really important to you? Your family? Your religion? Your leisure time? Your hobbies? Decide on what your most important values in life are and then make sure that the goals you set are designed to include and enhance them.

2. Begin With The End In Mind
Tom Watson, the founder of IBM was once asked what he attributed the phenomenal success of IBM to and he said it was three things:
The first thing was that he created a very clear image in his mind of what he wanted his company to look like when it was done. He then asked himself how would a company like that have to act on a day-to-day basis. And then in the very beginning of building his company, he began to act that way.

3. Project Yourself Into The Future
The late, great Earl Nightingale created a whole new industry (self-improvement) after a 20-year study on what made people successful. The bottom-line result of his research was simply, “We Become What We Think About.”
Whatever thoughts dominate our minds most of the time are what we become. That’s why goal setting is so critical in achieving success because it keeps us focused on what’s really important to us. He then said that the easiest way to reach our goals is to pretend that we had ALREADY achieved our goals.
That is, begin to walk, talk and act as though we are already experiencing the success we seek. Then, those things will come to us naturally through the power of the subconscious mind.

4. Write Down The 10 Things You Want This Year
By making a list of the things that are important to you, you begin to create images in your mind. It’s been said that your mind will actually create chaos if necessary to make images become a reality. Because of this, the list of ten things will probably result in you achieving at least eight of them within the year.

5. Create Your Storyboard
Get a piece of poster board and attach it to a wall in your office or home where you will see it often. As you go through magazines, brochures, etc. and you see the pictures of the things you want, cut them out and glue them to your storyboard.
In other words, make yourself a collage of the goals that excite you…knowing full well that as you look at them everyday, they will soon be yours.
6. The Three Most Important Things

Decide on three things that you want to achieve before you die. Then work backwards listing three things you want in the next twenty years, ten years, five years, this year, this month, this week and finally, the three most important things you want to accomplish today.

7. Ask Yourself Good Questions
As you think about your goals, instead of WISHING for them to come true, ask yourself HOW and WHAT CAN YOU DO to make them come true. The subconscious mind will respond to your questions far greater than just making statements or making wishes.

8. Focus On One Project At A Time
One of the greatest mistakes people make in setting goals is trying to work on too many things at one time. There is tremendous power in giving laser beam focused attention to just one idea, one project or one objective at a time.

9. Write Out An “Ideal Scenario”
Pretend that you are a newspaper reporter that has just finished an interview about the outstanding success that you’ve achieved and the article is now in the newspaper. How would it read? What would be the headline? Write the article yourself, projecting yourself into the future as though it had already happened. Describe the activities of your daily routine now that are very successful. Don’t forget the headline. (Example: “Jane Doe Wins Top Network Marketing Award Of The Decade.”)

10. Pray & Meditate
As you get into bed each evening, think about your goal before you drop off to sleep. Get a very clear colorful image in your mind of seeing yourself doing the things you’ll be doing after you’ve reached your major goal. (Remember to include your values.) And then begin to ask and demand for these things through meditation and prayer.

NOTE CREDIT: http://www.goalsontrack.com/blog/2009/11/13/top-10-best-ideas-for-setting-goals/

How Not To Climb a Mountain (or How to Kill Your Start-Up)

By Sebastian Thrun

Founder and CEO at Udacity

I always felt that the process of innovation is analogous to climbing a mountain that’s never been climbed before. Reaching the summit of an unexplored mountain can be extremely rewarding (as can be a start-up IPO). But to me, even more exciting is the climb itself. It is the process of finding a path, negotiating obstacles, and learning from mistakes.
There are several things that separate successful explorers from unsuccessful ones. So here are my seven things of what to do.

Find Your Team

First, you need to compose a team you can trust. Your team needs to be energized, open-minded, and willing to take risks. Perfectionists don’t take risks; many so-called experts are unwilling to learn. They will all slow you down. Choose a team of individuals who are comfortable with risk, are eager to change the world and can’t wait to take the first step. And equally importantly, you need trust. At some point, your life will depend on your teammates and their lives will depend on yours. With mistrust in the team, you won’t get far.

Agree on the Final Goal

Don't climb without a clear understanding of which peak to climb. This might sound trivial, but I am stunned how often this rule is violated in technology circles. If half your team wants to climb one peak, and the other half a different peak, then you will fail. No matter how hard you work. There has to be absolute agreement on the ultimate goal, and every member of your team has to aim for the same goal. If people on your team don't agree, help them find happiness outside your team. It may be painful to ask a trusted member to step back, but if done right she will come back and thank you for it. And remember, the taller a peak you pick, the higher you will climb.

Don’t Plan the Climb

Then really importantly: Don't plan your route to the top. Simply don’t plan! Your mountain has never been climbed before. You just can't know the path. Or, in corporate land, you can’t know the budget and you can’t predict when your business will succeed. Arguing these things will only drag you down. Instead, just aim, and take the first step. Every mountain is climbed step after step after step, so you might as well start taking steps. Be open minded, and ready to learn. What you will find is that the process of climbing is more gratifying than the process of arguing how to climb.

Factor in Retreat

On your way up, you will inevitably make poor choices. You will find yourself on false summits, or face non-traversable terrain. So you will have to retreat. In start-up speak, this is called a "pivot" - but it really is a retreat, since you have to undo past work before you can continue climbing. While descending may feel painful, you are actually getting closer to the summit. Learning something new constitutes progress. Get into the habit of celebrating failures and pivots (but still try to avoid them). At Google[x] we threw celebratory parties when projects failed!

Avoid the Tempting Yet Smaller Peaks

You will also encounter bad weather. At times, fog, rain, or snow will obscure the view of the summit. If that freaks you out, you will fail. Never switch to lesser mountains just because these are the only ones you can see. When the fog lifts, you will regret your decision. Instead, trust that the peak hasn't gone away, and trust your intuition while your senses might be clouded. At Udacity, it was always easy to pick smaller projects and gain success like creating online education for a district or for a few companies. But, the goal of democratizing education for everyone is a far bigger mountain that takes a lot more dedication and a lot more years. Yet it is the only mountain that truly matters to me and my team.

Fatigue Happens

Your team will fatigue. The higher you get, the less willing you might be to take risks. If you are running a company, the number of meetings will increase, and progress will grind to a halt. I promise you this problem affects every team. I have seen many promising start-up companies fail because of internal self-obstruction, or self-destruction. Teams experiencing a slow-down in progress often hire more people, just to find more people voicing more opinions in ever-more-busy meeting rooms won't make you go faster. It is important that you spot even the earliest signs of this problem and combat them vigorously. Aspiration must trump fear, and your team must be willing to risk everything, every day of the journey. Shrink your team. Streamline decision making. It sounds counter-intuitive, but it works.

Enjoy the Journey

Finally, you will suffer if you don't enjoy the very process of mountaineering. Climbers often spend weeks to reach a summit, but then stay there for just a few minutes. If reaching the summit is your only joy, then you are in for a prolonged period of suffering. Or put differently, if you are only into start-ups to get rich, you will face a lot of pain – more than money can make up for. Mountain climbing is not for everyone. But if you derive your pleasure from the little things, the failures, the learnings, and your daily progress, then you are in for a fun ride.

NOTE CREDIT: how-climb-mountain-kill-your-start-up-sebastian-thrun