1. November 5, 2010
Rules for Entrepreneurs
GrowSmartBiz Conference 2010
Washington, DC
13 Rules Every Successful
Entrepreneur Should Follow
2. November 5, 2010
Who the heck is this dude?
**Actor Fisher Stevens and Professional Snowboarder Steve Fisher beat me.
My Personal Site:
http://StevenFisher.CO (not .com)
Based in Northern Virginia
16+ Years in Product Management, Marketing
and User Experience
Steven Fisher
(#3 out of 546 Steven Fisher’s on the
Web**)
This Presentation:
http://www.slideshare.net/stevenfisher
Publisher RulesForBusiness.com and
SocialBizJournal.com
Recovering Serial Entrepreneur, Sometimes
Angel Investor and Active Startup Advisor.
Currently work for SapientNitro.
3. November 5, 2010
Good Health
Southern Methodist University's Cox School
of Business – Entrepreneur Traits
What Makes an Entrepreneur
Successful?
Need to Direct
Self-Confidence
Sense of Urgency
Comprehensive Awareness
Realistic Outlook
Conceptual Ability
Low Need for Status
Objective Approach
Emotional Stability
Emotional Stability
Realistic Outlook
Low Need for Status
4. November 5, 2010
Entrepreneurs Come in All Shapes and Sizes.
Source: http://piras.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/files/2010/03/refaceme-southpark-01.jpg
5. November 5, 2010
“You Have to Know Which Rules
to Follow So You Can Succeed
at Breaking the Rest of Them.”
Rules? Aren’t We Supposed to
Break the Rules?
6. November 5, 2010
The Rebel Rule:
“Don’t Settle for Mediocrity. Be An Innovation Rebel.”
11. November 5, 2010
High Five Exercise
Determine the Top Five Objectives for the
year will be.
Keep that in mind when doing tasks
every day.
Write them down now.
12. November 5, 2010
The Failure Rule:
“Failure Is Not Just An Option, It is a Requirement.”
13. November 5, 2010
The Resilience Rule:
“You Can Bounce Back If You Don’t Get Stretched.”
14. November 5, 2010
The Trust Rule:
“People Won’t Follow You If They Don’t Trust You.”
15. November 5, 2010
The Inner Circle Rule:
“You Are Only Successful As Your Inner Circle.”
17. November 5, 2010
Circle of Influence
Exercise
Draw up the top 5-7 people you
consider the most influential in your
decision making process.
Write them down now.
18. November 5, 2010
The Mirror Rule:
“You Reflect The Brand Of You and Your Company.”
19. November 5, 2010
The Replication Rule:
“Replicate Yourself So You Can Replicate Success.”
20. November 5, 2010
The Recharge Rule:
“If You Don’t Recharge, You Can’t Be In Charge.”
22. November 5, 2010
Recharge Exercise
List the five fun things you want to do
next year that don’t involve work –
vacation in europe, cooking class,
movies, write a short story.
Write them down now.
23. November 5, 2010
The Pulse Rule:
“Understand Your Business Heartbeat Or You’ll Flat Line.”
25. November 5, 2010
The Cash Rule: “Cash Is Not Just King, It’s The Whole Kingdom.”
13 Rules for Every Business
The Rebel Rule: “Be An Innovation Rebel.”
The Uncertainty Rule: “Uncertainty Leads To Opportunity, Embrace It.”
The Growth Rule: “Don’t Work For Your Business, Run Your Business.”
The Failure Rule: “Failure Is Not Just An Option, It is a Requirement.”
The Resilience Rule: “You Can Bounce Back If You Don’t Get Stretched.”
The Trust Rule: “People Won’t Follow You If They Don’t Trust You.”
The Inner Circle Rule: “You Are Only Successful As Your Inner Circle.”
The Mirror Rule: “You Reflect The Brand Of You And Your Company.”
The Replication Rule: “Replicate Yourself So You Replicate Success.”
The Recharge Rule: “If You Don’t Recharge, You Can’t Be In Charge.”
The Pulse Rule: “Understand Your Business Heartbeat Or You’ll Flat Line.”
The Passion Rule: “Without Passion, You Will Not Succeed.”
Potential Exercise – Rule of Five or “High Five” – Determine the Top Five Objectives for the Year will be and keep that in mind when doing tasks every day. Write them down now.
Potential Exercise – “Circle of Influence” – Draw up the top 5-7 people you consider the most influencial in your decision making process. They can be from inside or outside the company. You have now identified your inner circle. Take each of them and go ask them to do the same. Ask to connect with them and expand your circle of influence.
Potential Exercise – “Recharge Exercise” – List 3-5 things you like to do that have nothing to do with work. Create a second column and write how much time in minutes you dedicate to these things. Add it all up. Use this equation – 10080 minutes week minus 8 hours of sleep a night for 6720 minutes available. Reduce that by 3000 for a 50 hour work week and you have 3720 minutes left or 62 hours left for relaxing an recharging. How will you use this time?
OR list the five fun things you want to do next year that don’t involve work – vacation in europe, cooking class, movies, write a short story.
http://www.traveldailynews.com/pages/show_page/38803-The-rule-of-five---insights-from-Innocent-Drinks
http://www.aw-wrdsmth.com/FAQ/characteristics_successful_entre.html
1. Good health. Successful entrepreneurs must work long hours for extended periods of time. When they get sick, they recover quickly.
2. A Need to Control and Direct. They prefer environments where they have maximum authority and responsibility and do not work well in traditionally structured organizations. This is not about power, though. Entrepreneurs have a need to create and achieve by having control over events.
3. Self-confidence. Findings showed that as long as entrepreneurs were in control, they were relentless in pursuit of their goals. If they lost control, they quickly lost interest in the undertaking.
4. Sense of Urgency. They have a never-ending sense of urgency to do something. This corresponds with a high energy level. Many enjoy individual sports rather than team sports. Inactivity makes them impatient.
5. Comprehensive Awareness. They have a comprehensive awareness of a total situation and are aware of all the ramifications involved in a decision.
6. Realistic Outlook. There is a constant need to know the status of things. They may or may not be idealistic, but they are honest and straightforward and expect others to be the same.
7. Conceptual Ability. They have superior conceptual abilities. This helps entrepreneurs identify relationships in complex situations. Chaos does not bother them because they can conceptualize order. Problems are quickly identified and solutions offered. The drawback is that this may not translate well to interpersonal problems.
8. Low Need for Status. Their need for status is met through achievement not through material possessions.
9. Objective Approach. They take an objective approach to personal relationships and are more concerned with the performance and accomplishment of others than with feelings. They keep their distance psychologically and concentrate on the effectiveness of operations.
10. Emotional Stability. They have the stability to handle stress from business and from personal areas in their lives. Setbacks are seen as challenges and do not discourage them.
11. Attraction to Challenges. They are attracted to challenges but not to risks. It may look like they are taking high risks, but in actuality they have assessed the risks thoroughly.
12. Describing with Numbers. They can describe situations with numbers. They understand their financial position and can tell at any time how much they have in receivables and how much they owe.
http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Makes-An-Entrepreneur-Successful?&id=298932
Users Come in All Shapes and Sizes.
Following the rules does not mean you aren’t rebellious. It simply means that you are willing to leverage well tested fundamentals to break through an be successful. Your idea may break the rules but the way you run the business is very fundamental.
Entrepreneurs are non-conformists. Being non-conformists, they are innately driven to differentiate from the status quo. They don’t listen when someone tells them something cannot be done. [1] Rosenfeld, R.B., M. Winger-Bearskin, D. Marcie, and C.L. Braun. 1993. Delineating Entrepreneurs’ Styles: Application of adaptation-innovation subscales. Psychological Reports, 72(1), 287-298.
Entrepreneurs prefer to do new things, or to do familiar things in a different and better way. Entrepreneurs have a preference for innovation. [3] Chen, C., R. Green, and A. Crick. 1998. Drucker, P. 1985. Innovation and Entrepreneurship.New York: Harper and Row.
There wouldn’t be a Southwest, JetBlue, ZipCar, Amazon, FreshDirect,
As small as your company might be, you must still look at the smallest thing to be innovative.
Talk about a way that I got creative to innovate in some small way.
Jewish high school in Connecticut. They are advertising on the train in CT. Every person thinks that they are bigger than they really are.
Piggybank Photo
Entrepreneurs have high uncertainty tolerance. They are willing to accept that they cannot predict the future, but recognize that they can guide it through their actions. [4] Chen, C., R. Green, and A. Crick. 1998. Drucker, P. 1985. Innovation and Entrepreneurship.New York: Harper and Row
Five stages – Personal (People buy from you), Expansion (you can get founderitis here if you are not careful), Separation (Can you go on vacation?), #4????, Enterprise (People buy from YOUR COMPANY)
Need to talk about how a company goes from YOU and people buying from YOU to buying from THEM and YOUR COMPANY.
Potential Exercise – Rule of Five or “High Five” – Determine the Top Five Objectives for the Year will be and keep that in mind when doing tasks every day. Write them down now.
Failure is not an option for going to the moon or rescuing Chilean miners. But for Small Business it is not only an option, in most cases it is a requirement.
Think of logos and products that failed.
Talk about the light bulb 1000 tries before he got it right.
Even superheroes have their flaws.
Potential Exercise – “Circle of Influence” – Draw up the top 5-7 people you consider the most influencial in your decision making process. They can be from inside or outside the company. You have now identified your inner circle. Take each of them and go ask them to do the same. Ask to connect with them and expand your circle of influence.
Draw up the top 5-7 people you consider the most influencial in your decision making process. They can be from inside or outside the company. You have now identified your inner circle. Take each of them and go ask them to do the same. Ask to connect with them and expand your circle of influence.
On the downside the emotional risks associated with starting a business can be great whether the business succeeds or fails. Consider how your complete dedication to and immersion in the new venture will affect your marriage and family. When you spend every waking hour dealing with business problems it may not leave much emotional energy to deal with family problems. Are your spouse and children prepared and able to make the emotional investment needed for you to start a business? If you venture goes down, will you be able to prevent your marriage and family from going down as well?
Potential Exercise – “Recharge Exercise” – List 3-5 things you like to do that have nothing to do with work. Create a second column and write how much time in minutes you dedicate to these things. Add it all up. Use this equation – 10080 minutes week minus 8 hours of sleep a night for 6720 minutes available. Reduce that by 3000 for a 50 hour work week and you have 3720 minutes left or 62 hours left for relaxing an recharging. How will you use this time?
OR list the five fun things you want to do next year that don’t involve work – vacation in europe, cooking class, movies, write a short story.
List 3-5 things you like to do that have nothing to do with work. Create a second column and write how much time in minutes you dedicate to these things. Add it all up. Use this equation – 10080 minutes week minus 8 hours of sleep a night for 6720 minutes available. Reduce that by 3000 for a 50 hour work week and you have 3720 minutes left or 62 hours left for relaxing an recharging. How will you use this time?
OR list the five fun things you want to do next year that don’t involve work – vacation in Europe, cooking class, movies, write a short story.