Successful Entrepreneur

Are You Productive?

admin — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:23:59 +0000

Are you productive? If you sat down and worked it out, how many hours a day do you spend advancing your business?

Many of us spend our time on unproductive tasks. Yes they have to be done, I’m not arguing about but they don’t advance you business. What does advancing your business mean?

Adding to the bottom line.

Each business is different so different things add to the bottom line. But hear are some common things which aren’t…

meetings
learning
dealing with emails
delivery of service
customer service
social media

Yes they all have to be done…well may be not meetings… but they don’t bring in new business directly. Why do them then? Well if you don’t deliver the service then you are going to get refund requests. Others will help with market leadership etc.

So what sort of things advance the business?

Product creation
Prospecting
Increase traffic (if you are an internet business)
Increase conversion

When you are growing your business you need to dedicate some time each day in advancing your business.

I would advise that you schedule an hour or two each day to these productive type activities. If you aren’t used to doing them then it may seem strange.

In my kind of business i.e. the online business people can spend over 8 hours day working in front of the computer but they don’t get anywhere. Why is that? Well they are not focusing on the right activities.

What you need to do is write down the things that you advance your business. They are new products, more services, more customers, better conversion, and new markets etc.

Once you have these you drill down further i.e. if you are an internet business trying to get more customers then how are you going to achieve that? Well better rankings in the search engines… that means seo… what seo activities are there?

You should then have a productive activity that the more you do of it… the more customers you get and the better your business does.

You then schedule a slot in each day to do this activity.

I will explain more about how I do that in my next post.

Technorati Tags: focus time, productive, productive activities, productivity, unproductive activities

Mentor Programs – Do You Need a Mentor?

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 17:15:59 +0000

I love reading about other successful entrepreneurs. I think that reasons for that is that they inspire me and give me ideas. They can act like mentors.

I actually have a mentor for this year. My mentor is Ed Dale from the Thirty Day Challenge. He is a successful entrepreneur. I will probably write a little more about him in future posts but for now I will write about why I chose him.

I decided that I was going to start my journey to try and become a successful entrepreneur this year.

I was passionate about that.

But…

I didn’t have a passion about an individual idea as such. You know that burning idea that a lot of people have that drives them to spend their entire savings on prototypes for many years.

I didn’t set out with the idea of getting a mentor either. I had already decided to go part time. It is just around that time I noticed that Ed Dale was offering a mentorship program.

The program had limited places and I only found out about it a few days later than others. I watched his video about it Saturday morning. Decided about 5 minutes into it that it was for me.

I wrote my application on the Sunday then wired my money to him on the Monday.

That is right you had to send your $5,000 up front before you had an interview and been accepted. I had no problem doing that…I trusted him.

I then had an email back saying he had received everything and arranged a Skype interview. I prepared for the interview and although felt a little nervous did well enough to be accepted.

I am not sure how many people were finally accepted but I am pretty sure over 100 people applied.

I decided to do the mentor program for a number of reasons.

Ed Dale is a proven successful entrepreneur in the area that I wanted to get into.

I was starting something new and it is nice to have someone who is that successful look over your shoulder and if you are going in completely the wrong direction for them to tell you.

Finally, $5,000 is a lot of money. Given my current position it seems even more. If you spend that kind of money are you going to follow through with it?? I know I am!

I will keep you updated about how it goes.

Technorati Tags: ed dale, mentor, mentor programmes, mentor programs, mentoring programmes, mentoring programs, successful entrepreneur

Update On Yesterday’s post

admin — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:16:59 +0000

This is an update on yesterday’s post. I know this isn’t a blog on investing, it is a blog about trying to be a successful entrepreneur but it explains why I’m not writing much today.

After selling out of that stock yesterday I put on my Bloomberg App on iPhone just to see how the markets got on. That share was still on my watchlist so it gave me a price update. You can guess what I’m going to tell you next can’t you.

Yes it was up… it was up a lot.

It finished the day up over 26%. That is right…26%!

To say I am gutted is a major understatement.

It leaves me questioning my decision making and is a huge blow to my confidence. Will I be able to trust my decision making in the future? Will I take that right opportunity?

Technorati Tags: confidence, decision making

Risks and Diversification

admin — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 06:01:59 +0000

To be a successful entrepreneur you have to take risks don’t you? Are you risk taker? Am I?

I think I am a risk taker and this is a sad story (to me) which demonstrates that. Wanting to be a successful entrepreneur I have always been fascinated by the stock market.

As soon as I saved up enough money I started investing. Like many of us I read pieces in the financial pages and took my advice from there. I then progressed to developing my own system… a system that has worked out rather well.

But I broke the system. I bought a company that the system would never let me do. I thought I was taking a calculated risk. It was a risk but I was young and had no commitments (at the time).

Anyway after buying the price kept coming down. To me that meant that it was even more of a bargain. Right?

I then found out a bit of news that brought the share price down. That increased my knowledge of the company and actually increased my confidence thinking I knew what I was doing.

As the price came down I kept buying more.

The price then stayed at a level so I thought it is now or never and bought a lot more. It stayed were it was for a couple of months.

Then the share price started to move. It started to move up very quickly.

“I was right!” about the company I thought and the share price was reflecting that. So I bought more!

Up it went and I had broken even… this will be one to tell the grandchildren about I thought.

Then it stopped and the stock plummeted. This time I knew it was bad, I knew I had made a mistake.

The price was falling quickly and I couldn’t get out, only managed to get a small chunk out.

It then reached its previous bottom and again has stayed there for a while.

It was different this time. I have commitments now so I wasn’t sure of what to do. It wasn’t until this point that I was ever worried about it… but now I was… very worried.

I started to panic as it started to move lower again. This is the first time I started to worry about investing so I knew it was a bad sign. I liquidated my position this morning.

The loss was big… nearly 1 year’s net salary and when you think about you have worked a year for nothing then that is frightening.

……………………………

The question now is how do I react. To be honest I don’t feel good. There is a bit of relief there but have to say I am gutted.

Yes I think I am a risk taker but I obviously got this one wrong. That will happen to risk takers and a lot of successful entrepreneurs.

Warren Buffett said about diversification to put all your eggs in one basket and watch it very carefully. I wasn’t watching carefully enough.

Successful entrepreneurs often don’t diversify. Their entire wealth and future is often tied up in their business. This means that it could all disappear very quickly and you have to be prepared for that.

Yes to be a successful entrepreneur you need to take risks but you need to fully know what you are doing.

I think the key is to know your business and know yourself.

Technorati Tags: diversification, risk taker, successful entrepreneur, taking risks

Other Big News

admin — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:19:59 +0000

We are still playing catch up on where I currently am and why it will be a big year for me… possibly the biggest.

My Girlfriend is pregnant. Yes we are having a baby in December. We are both over the moon and very excited.

Yes it really couldn’t get any bigger could it?

This does pile the pressure on a bit. I am only on a part time salary now. I have been ok for the first few months. Obviously I haven’t been saving as much, in fact nothing at all. As a natural saver this is hard for me. I want to see my wealth going up every month.

I have switched monetary saving into investing in my time… time in my new business to try and become a successful entrepreneur.

I will be struggling soon though if it doesn’t start to generate any money. My girlfriend will be going on maternity leave. While she gets great benefits, 6 months of full pay, 3 months at half pay and nothing for the final 3 months, it does mean a lot less money coming into the household for the next 12 months.

Not only less money but extra expenditure too.

I am a little worried about the finances I have to admit.

Having said that what a year to be at home more? I am sure I will look back on this and be grateful that I had the opportunity to see more of the baby.

I am also sure that my goal of being a successful entrepreneur would’ve been at risk if I hadn’t gone part time. How many people can start business, have a baby while carrying out a full time job?

Yes there will be some but I doubt I could.

I probably would have put it off for a couple of years and you and I both now that if I had done that it would’ve never have happened.

Technorati Tags: big news, successful entrepreneur

Successful Entrepreneur – Some Big Decisions

admin — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 08:04:59 +0000

So why is this going to be such an interesting year for me?

Well it has already been interesting for a little while as a few big personal things have happened to me.

I have always wanted to be a successful entrepreneur every since I was a kid. The problem was I didn’t have an idea and that put me off. Also, I guess that I probably didn’t have the confidence to do anything about it.

This year saw some big changes for me. There were two big things that set it off. Firstly I moved in with my girlfriend… I was finally growing up!

And secondly, many people where I work were made redundant. I knew that if I didn’t do something now then I wouldn’t fulfil my dream of being a successful entrepreneur.

I had dabbled creating a website that sold an ebook a couple of years before. I actually created two. The first one did ok and is still around today. The second cost me money. It was a shame because I looked at this in the wrong way at the time…totally different from how a successful entrepreneur would.

I reasoned with myself that I had just been lucky with the first one. This led me to not try again. This was a mistake.

So when I was thinking that this is my time to do something I thought that it had to be online somewhere. I did a free course on the internet called The 30 day challenge. This brought my skills up to date.

I was now confident again… confident in becoming a successful entrepreneur.

I then made some calculations. I worked out that I could survive on a part time salary. It would be tight but I could do it. I thought it is now or never so decided to go part time from my normal day job.

When I made the decision I was both excited and had my doubts. It was now or never. I went part time working only 3 days per week in my normal job leaving me some time to work on my new business.

I thought that way would be the best way of doing it.

Technorati Tags: big decisions, successful entrepreneur

Successful Entrepreneur – The Beginning

admin — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 06:17:59 +0000

Hello and welcome to my first post on my brand new website Successful entrepreneur. I have to admit that I am currently not a successful entrepreneur… well not yet anyway but I want to get there.

This is what this website is about. I have an interesting year ahead of me and one of my goals is to be a successful entrepreneur. I will be using this website to record my thoughts, failures, what I learn and hopefully some successes too.

It will be a diary or journal if you like. I am sure that at times I will pour my heart out but I would also like to share in my joys (if I have any).

So if you are here because you want information about a successful entrepreneur then you will have to follow my journey. Hopefully you will be able to see one grow over time.

I am also sure that I will be posting information about other successful entrepreneurs who have been an inspiration to me along the way.

I want to be posting here for as many days as I can, and I will aim to do it at least 5 times per week. There I said it… now that is a commitment I will do my best to keep to.

I am sure that the website will develop a proper structure over time but in the short term I will be using it to just get my thoughts out there. I would love to hear what you have to say. I want you to post comments as I am sure that there are so many people out there who want to be successful entrepreneurs too.

That is it for my first post. I will be going into more detail about how why I am doing this right now in my next.

I am quite excited about this even though I know that at this there won’t be many of you reading this.

Until next time!

Technorati Tags: successful entrepreneur, the beginning