Top Ten Reasons to Start a Business Now
Filed Under: Top Ten Lists
Tags: Business Tips, Entrepreneur, Recession, Risk, Startup, Vision
1. You will build your business on a foundation of frugality, which will benefit you in the long run. Knowing how to keep costs low is a great lesson to learn in the beginning.
2. Great talent is available in the job market.
3. Customers are looking for value. They want more for less and if your business or product provides this, you will succeed.
4. Contrary to popular belief, banks and venture capital firms are willing to lend money to great ideas. They want to transform the market place.
5. You will be poised and prepared to catch the upturn of the economic market when it starts to rise.
6. Your new employees will have great attitudes and less ego. They will be excited, focused, and appreciative to be a part of a budding business.
7. Being laid off can be a blessing in disguise because it allows you to spend your time and energy on building your own business.
8. Innovation will be built into the fabric of your company because you and your team will have to be inventive and creative to stand out.
9. Office space, vendors and suppliers are cheaper than ever.
10. You can get great press right now by showing that your company has an alternative view in the market place.
Craft Your Story: Technique # 2: Fun with Proust
Filed Under: Your Story
Tags: Craft Your Story, Entrepreneur, Startup, Vision
I admit that fun and Marcel Proust, author of the several thousand page Modernist text Remembrance of Things Past are not always associated. However, the subject of this post, the Proust Questionnaire is surprisingly fun and it could be another way to generate the raw material to craft your story.
Designed by the French author in the late 1800s to amuse himself and his friends, the Proust Questionnaire is widely used as a method of inquiry, most famously, perhaps, on the television show, The Actor’s Studio. In any case, the Proust Questionnaire has been subject to numerous adaptations the most recent of which is for the HBS Community: The Proust Questionnaire for Entrepreneurs.
Like a more traditional interview, the Proust Questionnaire is a useful method for writers and conversationalists, alike. If you are interested in having your answers published on The HBS Blog email your completed questionnaire to our managing editor, carleigh@delawareinc.com.
The Proust Questionnaire for Entrepreneurs :
Your name:
Name of your business:
Your background:
Your chief characteristic:
Your regular reads:
Clients, customers, constituents:
How long have you been in business?
Where do you do business?
Your concrete inspiration:
Your big dreams:
Your first success:
The status of your business:
The future of your business:
Your greatest challenge in business:
Business pet peeve:
Your favorite entrepreneurs, pioneers, mavericks, artists, and heros from real life and history:
The greatest rewards of your entrepreneurship:
Your idea of happiness in business:
Your present state of mind:
Your business advise:
Your favorite motto:
Your favorite business book:
Your one sentence business story:
Below is My Story crafted using The Proust Questionnaire for Entrepreneurs, we can not wait to read yours!
Your name: Christina Cornelius
Name of your business: The Writing Studio, LLC
Your background: BA in English from Emory University
Your chief characteristic: observant
Your regular reads: McSweeney’s, The New York Times, Oprah Magazine
Clients, customers, constituents: Entrepreneurs, Speech Writers, Resume Writers
How long have you been in business? Seven Years
Where do you do business? Lugano, Switzerland, but I work with people from Delaware to Dubai
Your concrete Inspiration: To be honest, not to give it away…
Your big dreams: To own some seriously awesome intellectual property and to contribute to others’ success stories by helping them communicate through writing, public speaking, blogging, or any other viable form of communication. (I haven’t worked with anyone on a text message yet, but I know it will happen.)
Your first success: Technically, getting a Writing Studio email account.
The status of your business: It is now a great platform from which I can offer my natural talents to those who are writing something and want feedback, a co-writer, or a personal editor!
The future of your business: Ummm. See my favorite motto!
Your greatest challenge in business: Delegating.
Business pet peeve: Interns who fall asleep at their desk, or send me emails where ‘ you’ is spelled ‘u’
Your favorite entrepreneurs, pioneers, mavericks, artists, and heros from real life and history: Oprah Winfrey, Martin Luther King, Jr., Louise Bourgeois
Your greatest rewards: Being able to help my clients clarify and communicate, and make sure they have fun doing it and so do I!
Your idea of happiness: Open windows, warm bread with butter, hot tea, my family around and about and some reading and writing to follow (so, a continental breakfast on a Sunday in May with the tribe, apparently, followed by as Kurt Vonnegut once said, ‘showing off in private’)
Your present state of mind: Relaxed and enthusiastic
Your advise: Ask yourself what you naturally contribute and do what you are.
Your favorite motto: Proceed as the way opens.
Your favorite business book: Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind and The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. Putting the two together confirms my worldview: apply your energy towards what matters most plus think creatively.
Your business story in one sentence: One sunny, smoggy, sweltering Saturday Morning, in Atlanta, Georgia, I coached a high school friend, an artist and entrepreneur, as she edited her resume, and it was fun and easy for me, but daunting and difficult for her and I decided I needed to create a professional space from which I could offer my talents and skills to those who need them, so I incorporated The Writing Studio, LLC.
Einstein Failed at Business
Filed Under: Founder's Forum
Tags: Entrepreneurs, Risk, Vision
Einstein, as brilliant as he was, wouldn’t have been able to start a business or even manage a business successfully.
He proved that to his disappointed father, an entrepreneur who built two successful businesses and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. Einstein tried, and was miserable at it. He ended up packing his things and leaving in frustration. Yet Einstein had a lot in common with today’s new breed of entrepreneur. He envisioned the experiments to prove the world’s greatest scientific theories, as entrepreneurs today envision businesses never before imagined, or possible, in the history of mercantilism.
There are lots of examples of today’s entrepreneurs envisioning businesses that never existed before, like eBay, Google, and many others. Even Microsoft, when it first started, was a one-of-a-kind business. Bill Gates, Pierre Omidyas (founder of eBay), and Larry Page & Sergey Brin (Founders of Google) are well-known modern day Einstein’s who can create as well as envision. Two of today’s relatively unknown entrepreneurial Einsteins, Evan Williams (co-founder of Twitter) and Woody Norris (inventor) are best understood by viewing their talks on www.TED.com.
Einstein trusted his vision. He relentlessly pursued his vision and in doing so, he actually fulfilled his vision. On the gut level, this describes today’s new entrepreneur who is primarily a dedicated visionary. In this global marketplace, the entrepreneurial boom has just begun. More new businesses are going to be created in the next 20 years than ever before in the whole history of civilized man. More creative people will take the path of pursuing their dream by forming a company – and more of you will succeed.
The opportunity to form a company and create a business that uniquely sustains your lifestyle, allows you to be creative and helps your customers, all at the same time, is now available to you and a million others. ALL of you can be successful beyond your wildest dreams. To attain success you must have a vision, be dedicated to your vision and take the RISK of actually doing it. Many of you have already taken the plunge and many of you are just now considering it. At Harvard, we form more than 5,000 companies per year for people like you, and we’ve been doing it for 28 years. Communication among us, the entrepreneurs, is what this blog is all about.
Illustration by Josh Lowe
