So no politician is going to save the Eurozone or indeed any indebted “Western’ economy. You don’t get elected by preaching fiscal prudence and public sector cuts (see France and Greece recently). No, the only way is for us to grow economies faster than the debts for an extended period … and as the governments’ credit cards are max’ed, only the private sector can help.

The ‘West’ needs Superhero Entrepreneurs. We need to rediscover our ingenuity, our ambition and drive. We need to stop worshipping pointless celebrities that have done nothing more productive than release a sex tape or marry a footballer. While we sit on our sofas watching how the Kardashians live or spend the weekend recovering from a hangover, we passively hand over the opportunity for a better future to someone else … most likely to someone in the Far East who considers working 60 hours per week a privilege and saves rather than buys overpriced luxuries on credit.

We have such superheroes in our midst, but they are trapped in jobs they foolishly think are safe and brainwashed into never using their initiative. In order to coax them out of their shells, we need to stop hating on entrepreneurs who succeed. For some reason, winning the lottery gets more press than a self-made millionaire selling or floating his/her company for gazillions. Which one is more worthy of attention and praise? Which one created jobs and paid VAT, corporation tax and income taxes that would make your eyes water?

So, if you want economic growth we’ve not seen for decades … if you want more entrepreneurs inventing things, building companies, selling TO China instead of importing FROM China … we all need to start appreciating what entrepreneurs are trying to do, encourage them and praise them even if they fail. It is time to reinstate the entrepreneur as a role-model. A modern-day superhero without which there is no escape from the debt crisis.

If you agree with the above, please share this article as the first step!

Those things are usually true, but lazy people who hate work are more effective at arranging things so that others are doing the heavy lifting for them. The result of which is that the lazy entrepreneur more quickly ends up owning a business rather than a job.

Rested entrepreneurs with time to think make smarter decisions ...

Many of us are motivated by money. People often judge their level of success on the size of their pay packet. Working an 60+ hour week and taking home a decent wage isn’t as smart as you might think. The work-shy entrepreneur would rather take home half the amount if it meant he or she can work just 20 hours per week. We might mock them for doing so in the first year (despite them earning more per hour!), but in the second year the guy who likes to take naps in the afternoon has probably used his spare time to work out how to grow his business further and earn him more. This effect compounds as time goes on.

Being flat-out, working all hours God sends is only a short-term solution … often required to get a business off the ground, but should be a temporary situation. If you want to own a *business* you need to step back from the coal face and use your time far more strategically. You need to do this as quickly as you can, even taking a pay cut if necessary.

Lazy people are better at delegation and so hire people to take over the more intensive parts of their own jobs more quickly. I’ve actually always been quite lazy in that there are lots of things I simply don’t want to do … and so don’t if I can find a way not to. The first large Web site contract I won was largely outsourced to fellow students as it involved a lot of repetitive work. It didn’t occur to me that I should do it all myself – and I could have – to keep all the money. The result being I was free to find other jobs, reinvest the proceeds more wisely and build a larger company not reliant on the number of hours I had in a day.

Build yourself a business, don’t trap yourself in a job no-one else can do!

Opportunities for startups to get critical financial, legal, marketing and management support are few and far between. Thanks to Orange, UK entrepreneurs have a new chance to win ~£200,000 worth of help – including some cash investment – to get their business off the ground and off to a flying start.

If only more large businesses in the UK would start initiatives like this to stimulate interest in forming new businesses. Orange’s Win Your Business competition is looking for unique startups to apply online. Here is a list of who they’d like to enter:

•  a business or project that is different
•  a different approach to running the business
•  a robust business model
•  a clear strategy for the project/business
•  evidence of a market for the project/business
•  a pitch that demonstrates the applicant has the necessary skills to succeed
•  an idea that is worth funding and could be the UK’s next different business

Orange clearly want to encourage entrepreneurs to do something bold and unusual, perhaps something that has never been tried before or disrupt a business sector that has failed to move with the times. The opportunities for entrepreneurs are global like never before thanks to mobile communications and the Internet. Many startups can be operated from anywhere with nothing more than a laptop and a mobile phone! I know people that travel the world while managing very profitable businesses.

So, if you have a Different Business model and want to get £200,000 of support in the following ways …

•  business planning advice and mentoring from Kingston Smith
•  mobile communications devices and plans from Orange
•  marketing consultancy from Publicis Chemistry
•  legal advice from Lewis Silkin
•  investment capital

… click on one of the links in this post and download the application form. Remember, if you don’t ask the answer is always no! Entering the competition is a no-brainer!

Sponsored Post

People often look at success stories and assume that those involved have had some unnatural run of good fortune. The biographies of billionaires rarely focus on their many failures or misadventures. Believing what you read or watch on TV about how easy it was for someone or how it was their sheer genius that drove them to success would be like treating Hollywood movies as historical references!

So everyone fails. Everyone. What distinguishes the successful from the unsuccessful is NOT whether or not they fail … it is how often they are willing to fail and keep trying. The way someone reacts and then adapts to a setback separates the great from the average. There is opportunity in every problem and dwelling on misfortune never helped anyone … what NOT to do when forced to take a back step is to give up.

If you never ask, the answer is always no. If you never try, you will never achieve.

So what do you do when disaster strikes?

1/ Breathe: Your blood-pressure is through the roof, you’re running on adrenaline and unless you’re super-human you are probably a nightmare to be around. Calm yourself down. If you look after your health – both physical and mental – then no matter what happens you can fight another day. Remember what and who is truly important and be grateful for them. Cry, scream … stab a pillow … do whatever gets the initial emotional reaction out of your system ASAP. Be totally honest with your partner/s (both business and personal).

2/ Damage limitation: When you are calm, the first thing you have to take care of is surviving in the best fashion possible. Assume the worst-case scenario for your personal finances and prepare. Sell stuff you don’t need & cut your overheads as drastically as possible … start looking for a job, even if it is part-time. Do NOT act like everything is OK, run up credit cards or bury your head in the sand as you will inevitably make things worse than they need to be. Keeping up appearances to your friends or family is pure insanity and shows you’re still valuing the wrong things in life. Live within your means at all times.

3/ Find the Opportunity: You are alive. You have hopefully bought yourself some time to adapt. Now you need to find the opportunity in what just happened. Is there something left of your business you can sell? Can you change tack and try another angle/approach? Are there contacts or assets you have which can be developed for a different purpose? Can you merge with a larger competitor? Perhaps you can scale back your ambitions and run at break even? There is *always* opportunity in difficult situations, but you will have to be willing to have a lot more rejections in order to discover what it is!

4/ Learn: Surviving is not good enough, you need to figure out why things didn’t go to plan. Where you unrealistic or did you just run out of time/money? What should have been done differently? Once the crisis is over you need to learn whatever you can about why things happened the way they did and ensure you never repeat the same mistakes. If you can do failure ‘right’ then you will grow from it and be better the next time around.

5/ Try Again: It may take you months or even years, but never surrender. The more times you roll the dice, the higher the probability you will roll a six. Keep taking small steps forward, don’t overstretch (i.e. risk too much) and be patient. Good fortune always pays a visit to those who persevere.

I’m a passionate believer in the above proverb. Education and knowledge is the greatest gift you can give someone. Sometimes outright charity creates a reliance rather than encourages self-sufficiency.

For some reason, the developed world appears to be losing its entrepreneurial spirit. Sure, there are some huge recent success stories like Facebook or Google coming out of Silicon Valley, but only the tiny minority of startups obtain VC funding in the way they did. Starting a business should be for everyone, not an elite few that have the privilege of an Ivy League education or the right connections.

I want to support the ‘grass roots’ of startups … where the student, housewife or recently redundant feel that creating their own business is a realistic option and not some impossible task that requires a degree in law or accounting.

I am giving away free advice, on this Web site and in my eBooks to lower the barrier to entry as far as possible for everday people. I’ve also chosen to help Startupism, a non-profit organisation based in San Francisco created with the ambition of spreading Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial spirit worldwide. Hopefully my blog articles will be shared over on startupism.org very soon!

The World needs more startups. Small-to-medium business create 2/3rds of the jobs in the private sector. Large companies rarely innovate like small businesses do … so for the real leaps in wealth creation, quality of life, technology to protect our environment, etc. we absolutely need as many entrepreneurs as possible. We can’t have enough people encouraging entrepreneurs and celebrating their successes.

That is why I am a startup evangelist. If just one person decides to risk it and startup because of me it will have been worth it.

I don’t want to give people advice to rush into something unprepared, but if you’ve done your research & still believe there is an opportunity, the only way to find out is to give it a try. Dithering is counter-productive and potentially harmful to your startup.

Here is a simple checklist of things you MUST think about / resolve before taking the first step:

• Investigate the costs of starting up
• Research your competitors thoroughly
• Ensure you understand the legalities/regulation you will need to comply with
• Reduce your personal overheads or be prepared to
• Reduce the risk you are taking by ensuring you have enough cash/income to last as long as possible
• Set realistic expectations for revenue in your early months

I absolutely do not advise anyone to start a company if it is possible they will run out of cash within 3 months. You MUST reduce your liabilities or bankroll your start-up with a separate income stream to give yourself 6-9 months minimum. The amount of lead-time you will need to begin generating cash depends on the type of business you are starting. For example, if you’re selling to large companies you may need more than a year to give yourself a fair crack at it. If you’re opening a retail outlet or restaurant you will need less of a time buffer, but you should be aware of any seasonality in your sector. E.g. opening a shop in the Spring may be a very bad idea if you will do 40% of your sales around Christmas time!

You can’t think of every detail until you actually start running your business, both opportunities and problems will surprise you. You won’t have your strategy absolutely correct – be prepared to adapt and leap into action if an opportunity presents itself.

Remember that your first startup is like a first child … it will be a crazy and emotional roller-coaster. When a customer says no, you’ll be depressed and miserable. When you make your first sale you’ll be on top of the world. To make it as easy as possible on yourself, only start a business when in a stable place personally. Do NOT surround yourself with doubters or negative influences, those closest to you must either encourage you or stay away!

If you’re lucky enough to have nothing to lose, spend less time thinking about it and get on with it!

The expression “busy fools” is important to remember. We all know them, people who busy themselves with things add no value to their businesses. They have meetings but come away with no firm decisions or progress. They’ll spend three days trying to learn accounting so they can complete their VAT return. They will spend 10 hours talking to a customer who is spending £100. These people will never be rich as they don’t value their own time so their customers never will.

She's doing it wrong!

Many startups come to a point where they are limited by the number of hours their founder/s can work before they have a breakdown. They get stuck, feeling unable to hire someone to help as it will mean a pay cut. Their business hits a ceiling and goes nowhere.

You need to take that pay cut and hire that person sooner rather than later. Before your exhaustion means you start letting down customers and before you lose enthusiasm for your job and the prospects of your business. You need to have confidence that any cut in pay will be more than compensated for as the business will have your attention again … rather than slaving for customers, you will have time to think about things like business development or marketing. This is where the energies of the founders should be, and where you add most value.

If business founders are worth £100/hour and employees £15/hour, the company will obviously make more profit on a job if an employee does the bulk of the work. You can then invest your £100/hour time in finding more business so that other people’s work is paying your salary. You’ll also be able to streamline your business, negotiate better deals with suppliers, spend time with your key accounts, etc. … things worthy of your time that will enable it to grow and become more profitable than before.

Bite the bullet, spend less hours doing and more thinking strategically… take a pay cut … and then reap even greater rewards!

>500 downloads on Smashwords with 47 Facebook ‘Like’s
Average of 4 stars rating in US iTunes – 28 ratings
Average of 4.5 stars rating in UK iTunes – 29 ratings

***** by Whitney Spelman:
I enjoyed this book greatly.

***** “Very inspirational and motivating” by Gskskshak:
I have been trying to come up with ways to make money on the side, other then working at the office job I have now. I don’t make bad money but would love to start my own business and work for myself. This book encouraged me a bit more and I think I will start putting ideas into play more often. Thank you for the awesome bit of information. It was inspiring!

***** “Better than expected” by Yung_Executive:
Inspirational book without the cheesiness of self-help literature. The author does a great job of warning entrepreneurs of the challenges ahead while providing convincing encouragement that YOU CAN DO IT…and you should! Quick, easy, and purposeful read.

***** “Start – go get em!” by John Conroy:
Great read and a real motivator, it’s seems the doubts are no just mine, thanks for publishing this.

**** “Decent Startup Book” by Mark P:
This book helps go over the startup phase of any business. It was short, easy to read, and came with inspirational quotes. I liked it enough, that I going to recommend it to my students. I run a business myself.

***** “Simply amazing” by Ramsy Rollie:
I’ve read many business self help books (the intelligent investor, think and grow rich, the E myth, etc) and this little iBook phamplet has got to be one of the best. It’s motivational but also MOST importantly keeps you in check with reality. Clearly telling you it ain’t all candy and roses, and giving you valuable advice from experience. My take? READ THIS BOOK

Few people would downsize their home, sell their car, work weekends and holidays, see their family less, stop buying new clothes, miss the big game on TV or even sleep less to reach their goals. Yet, unfortunately, more often than not this is what people need to do to get on top.

Eric Thomas, the ‘Hip-Hop Preacher’ is a motivational speaker. He sums the above up nicely by saying “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe … THEN you’ll be successful”. When you want to make your startup work, more than you want life’s luxuries like TV, holidays, a nice car, etc. then you are far more likely to make it work.

Creature comforts & startups don't mix

This is one of the big reasons, in my opinion, why most successful entrepreneurs are young (18-30). Students are already doing without, living on a tight budget, sleeping in a tiny studio … so it is far less sacrifice for a student than it is for someone who has tasted the comfort of a regular pay-cheque, owned a nice car or lived in a nice home. People who have had a decent job almost always end up with a bunch of liabilities that prevent them from taking risks. Higher rent payments, car payments, a credit card … all things which are hard to sacrifice in order to make a start-up business get off the ground.

Lets be clear, the higher your living costs the more difficult it will be to take the leap and persist long enough for you to learn the intricacies of your business and gain traction. That is unless you have a large pot of savings to fall back on during the inevitable difficult patches … which nearly no-one has.

So how can you increase your chances? It is easy to write down, but very hard to implement. Reduce your liabilities and outgoings as low as possible, and save as much as possible! Debt must be one of the biggest worries that prevents people from starting a business, so try to eliminate yours. Go without. You don’t need a nice car – I sold a 9-month old car and bought a £2000 boring one to give me some extra cash when starting a business for the second time (even when technically I was a millionaire!). Sell things you don’t need on eBay, stop having expensive nights out, eat at home & cook for yourself … even get a part-time job to do on the side of your start-up to reduce the burden on your fledgling company.

The longer you can survive and keep your business running, the more likely it will start to take off. Plenty of people have the perseverance and commons sense to make this happen … but can you also make the sacrifices required to last long enough?

What being exceptional is not about is being a genius. You do not need an IQ of 150 or a PhD to do something better than anyone else. Having a passion for what you do and striving to improve are the sole prerequisites. You don’t need to have an incredible job to demonstrate to the world that you are exceptional …

You can choose to do any job exceptionally...

The above image has been doing the rounds on the Web as a funny illustration of what a valet parking attendant with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) might do. I tend to think that it is actually a great use of spare time to make his or her car parking something memorable and different … i.e. exceptional. If I was this person’s boss I would be extremely pleased and make sure I kept them as an employee … if I had several different locations with car parks I would make it company policy!

Small innovations can have big effects on your customers and your reputation. I was on a customer support call the other day and the person in the call centre said “I’m going to put you on hold. I estimate it will take 4 minutes to get you a definitive answer, but I will come back in 2 minutes to update you”. Any possibility of me getting frustrated by being on hold was eliminated with that simple line … I imagine they have far fewer people hanging up mid-call than other call centres.

So, whatever your job or business, have a think about some small things you can do to become exceptional. The small, thoughtful things make an impression and can create free word-of-mouth marketing for you or your company … or, like the photo, may cause it to go viral!