No matter how well we plan and how much effort we dedicate to something, we fall sometimes short of our goal with the end-result causing a variety of challenges and problems.
Ultimately, it can adversely affect our financial position, reputation, relationships, team spirit and much more. It can also start to spiral into personal life and affect family, health and overall well-being.
Such situations are often perpetuated by denial by placing one own’s head in the sand. Well, when our head is in the sand, our most vulnerable ass-et is sticking out in plain view.
Some will laugh. Others will point and snicker, definitely telling others. And a few will take advantage of the situation and current position of vulnerability.
Sadly, we put ourselves in that position. Not because we swung and missed. Not because we didn’t see the forest for the trees. And not because we just flat-out saw something that wasn’t there.
Instead, it’s because we didn’t keep our head high, accept the situation, learn from it and move on, and with laser-focus. That is exactly what entrepreneurs do when faced with failure.
Opinion: A Recession is a Great Time to Start a New Business
It may seem counterintuitive, but downturns and bear markets present an opportunity for entrepreneurs to start a new business.
Why? Because the “uncertainty” that traditional businesses, not to mention financial markets, reputedly hate, isn’t an issue for entrepreneurs. They aren’t worried about trying to assess and meet demand for existing goods and services. They are busy inventing or creating something you never knew you wanted or needed.
The current downturn, often referred to as the Great Lockdown, is likely to produce permanent changes in how and where we do business: home versus office; electronically versus face-to- face. It will open new vistas for technologies that can facilitate contract tracing and monitoring. It will drive the development of more sophisticated data processing equipment — and maybe even a better nasal swab!
The unique nature of this recession seems to have opened a gaping hole that an enterprising entrepreneur could seek to fill.
“Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard.” –Guy Kawasaki, Alltop Co-Founder and Entrepreneur
More and More Professionals Are Using Their Career Expertise to Launch Entrepreneurial Ventures
The American education system is set up to teach and train individuals to become experts and key thought leaders in the specific fields that they choose. Given the rising costs of education, rarely can students choose more than one area to specialize in. If and when the day arrives that one wants to start a business of their own, it is quite the challenge to learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship later and confidently do so.
Additionally, many people have been trained in the sciences or the arts, so finance and accounting seem like foreign languages to them. So how are so many specialized healthcare professionals creating booming privately-owned businesses across the country?
As a formally trained Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm. D.), I had a unique advantage with an MBA in Entrepreneurship before enrolling in Pharmacy School. This opened my eyes and gave me the knowledge and inspiration to one day be able to start my own business. When most people hear of the Pharmacy profession, generally, they think about their local community Pharmacist at a nearby retail location. However, the skillset attained within school goes beyond the community realm and can be extremely useful in other areas.
My career, post-Pharmacy School, began in industry where I learned more about the business of pharmaceuticals which gave me the knowledge base to co-found our own health and wellness company. My advice to all of the current students that ask is that they should focus on understanding the science and craft of therapeutics, as opposed to the specific job description that they think they may land after school. Once you are an expert in pharmacology, that skill set translates into many areas from community, clinical, industrial, and yes, entrepreneurial.
How to Fight Your Fear of Leaving Your Job To Become An Entrepreneur
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably come to realize that the corporate life just isn’t for you. You’ve been thinking about leaving your job to work for yourself but you can’t seem to leave the security, safety, and familiarity of being an employee. Trust me, I’ve been there.
Going from a full-time job to a business of your own is a scary transition, therefore, you need to have a solid plan in place. As a potential entrepreneur, you should identify the problems that you could come across and where you could go for help. You should also have the right resources to dig into if you face these challenges in order to avoid failing. The following are the ultimate ways to fight your fear of leaving your job to become an entrepreneur.
Your Complete Pros and Cons List to Starting A Business After College
With continued uncertainty in the job market and an economy in the doldrums, starting a business after college is an option that graduates are increasingly considering. In fact, around 60% of recent graduates say they would like to start their own business.
However, with college debt at an all-time high and graduates concerned about lack of experience and networks, the start-up rate for this group is much lower at 23%, according to research.
There is no such thing as a career for life anymore.
However, one way of gaining skills and experience without having to rely on getting a job in an increasingly competitive labor market is to start-up your own business.
My oldest son is graduating high school this year, and like many parents in America, our family has been hyper-focused on preparing him for college. But as we get closer to that day, and his prospects (and my investment) become real, I wonder if I should be questioning the system more. My son has been dabbling in business on his own since grade school, and I can see the entrepreneurial fire growing within him. Yes, a business school with a communications, management or economics degree etc would build a great foundation, but if being an entrepreneur is his ultimate path, is four years or more in this conventional system the best way to equip him for the world ahead?
There will never be a “one size fits all” approach to starting a business. Nevertheless, there are common challenges founders face when navigating the long but rewarding process of business formation. As you embark on your own business journey what better place to look for answers and advice than top business schools?
To help you improve your business acumen, we’ve scoured required reading lists, online newsletters, and alumni-written books, from Wharton, Harvard and others to find what they’re recommending to their students and alumni. While we can’t promise you an MBA, these books might just be the next best thing.
A Message from Acceler8Success Founder, Paul Segreto
We know that suicide happens every day but when it’s front and center we become even more aware. It’s been three years since the suicide of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain and today I’ve seen multiple reminders of their passing. Both left this world at too early an age. I know they won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
My hope moving forward is for more awareness of suicide before it’s too late. I know when I read about a suicide it makes me recall an employee of mine that took his own life at the age of 25. Today, as I did back then I wonder what did we miss, were there warning signs and certainly, what drove him to do it? It also has me recalling, and this time with a slight smile, how I’ve been fortunate to have helped someone off the ledge, so to speak. Today, he and his family are living life to its fullest.
If you have any thoughts that may lead you to the brink, especially during these challenging times, please reach out to me and let’s chat, meet, whatever, or reach out to someone, anyone – just reach out! There are many more people than you might imagine that are willing to help, to be there for you. We’ve all faced challenges at one time or another – some quite severe. So, please, allow us to help you!Remember, the sun will come out tomorrow… it’s only a day away!
Entrepreneurs Are At Greater Risk Of Mental Disorders: Science Confirms
No successful entrepreneur ever said that building a company was easy. So let’s be honest about how brutal it actually is?
Why did Kate Spade, the founder of the $46.5 million company Kate Spade bags; Mao Kankan, a successful entrepreneur who founded Beijing Times Majoy Technology Co. (valued at $75 billion); and $70 billion company Café Coffee Day’s founder, V.G.Siddhartha, ended up taking their own lives?
If you are an entrepreneur, you probably are living with stress, anxiety, and burnout constantly. A recent study by Michael Freeman stated that 49% of all entrepreneurs at-risk of at least one mental illness. The same study also proved that entrepreneurs are:
2 times more likely to have suicidal thoughts
2 times more likely to be hospitalized for psychiatric ailments
In the words of Michael Freeman –
Who in their right mind would choose to be an entrepreneur? The barriers to success are virtually unlimited and most startups fail as a result.
Entrepreneurs have lower initial earnings, lower earnings growth, lower long-term earnings, greater work stress, and more psychosomatic health problems than employees. Why would anyone voluntarily accept the longer work hours, fewer weekends and holidays, more responsibility, chronic uncertainty, greater personal risk and struggle, and greater investment of emotional and physical resources required to be an entrepreneur instead of the security and long-term rewards of having a career? By conventional standards choosing to be an entrepreneur is an exercise in bad judgment.
Mental Health Tools and Resources for Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship can be a lonely road.
Even if you’re surrounded by a large team, founding a company means absorbing a set of risks and responsibilities greater than most can imagine. Employees depend on you. Customers depend on you. And most of all, you depend on you. After all, entrepreneurship is the process of creating your own opportunity.
But opportunity doesn’t come easy. And unfortunately for many entrepreneurs, the difficult journey can cause all sorts of associated struggles…especially when it comes to metal health and wellness.
In fact, according to researcher Michael Freeman, nearly half of all entrepreneurs will develop some sort of mental health issue during their lifetime. More specifically, Freeman found that compared to the average population, entrepreneurs are:
Twice as likely to suffer from depression
Six times more likely to suffer from ADHD
Three times more likely to suffer from substance abuse
Ten times more likely to suffer from bipolar disorder
Twice as likely to have a psychiatric hospitalization
Twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts
So, what’s an entrepreneur to do? Well, it starts by acknowledging that you’re not alone. That millions of entrepreneurs share similar battles with mental health and wellness…especially when living through times as uncertain as these.
And after you understand and acknowledge you’re not alone, it’s time to be proactive, using tools, goals, and systems to better understand and manage your mental health struggles as an entrepreneur.
Solo Entrepreneurs May Find Loneliness in Business Approach
There’s a lot to be excited about for those seeking a small-business adventure. The concept of being your own boss and building something from the ground up are two big examples.
The challenges, naturally, can be daunting, and not just in terms of financial success. Those that take the solo route to starting a business may find that the lack of daily interaction and communication may leave them with a sense of loneliness.
Here’s how Meredith Fineman describes it in a story for Fast Company: “It’s very lonely to stick your neck out there, to take on the world, even if you have a cofounder. You’re in the trenches. You’re trying to do something that has never been done before. So how could anyone else understand?”
Why the First Hours of Your Day Are the Most Important
There’s no question that Benjamin Franklin was a highly productive guy, with a CV that included writer, politician, entrepreneur, scientist, inventor, diplomat, printer and postmaster. In his autobiography, the polymath shared the details of his morning routine, which included waking up around 5 a.m. and asking himself, “What good shall I do this day?” He then set aside a couple of hours to “wash and address Powerful Goodness! Contrive days’ business, and take the resolution of the day; prosecute the present study; and breakfast.”
Later in life, he amended his schedule to include a refreshing “air bath,” which he found preferable to the cold water bath considered healthful at the time.
30 Habits of Successful People That Can Unleash Your True Potential
Adopting the daily habits of successful people will propel you to triumph in your own life.
Successful people seem to have it all — flourishing careers and thriving friendships, all while staying fit and maintaining a loving home and family life.
How do they do it?
By developing the mental, physical, and emotional practices that enable humans to thrive.
The good news is that you can learn the daily habits of successful people and invite achievement into your life, helping you empower yourself to create the life you want.
Everyone wants to be a highly successful entrepreneurs. If you want to be one of them, it is easy, just adopt and follow through their habits.
If you look at all the successful businesses and companies out there, they did not achieve the outstanding result in an instant. It is through period of time. Microsoft did not get to where it is today in just a few months time. Nike did not grow exponentially within just a couple of weeks. Starbucks too, takes time to grow into international coffee chain.Rome was not built in a day either.
What this means is that all these great companies take time to grow. These businesses succeed not from just making a single decision or doing just one thing that lead them to where they are today. These leaders have gone through tough times, all the ups and downs, their products and services have been tested over and over again by the market, and because of their habits or how they do things repeatedly, got them where they are today.
Entrepreneurship Defined: What It Means to Be an Entrepreneur
The road to entrepreneurship is often a treacherous one filled with unexpected detours, roadblocks and dead ends. There are lots of sleepless nights, plans that don’t work out, funding that doesn’t come through and customers that never materialize. It can be so challenging to launch a business that it may make you wonder why anyone willingly sets out on such a path.
Despite all of these hardships, every year, thousands of entrepreneurs embark on this journey determined to bring their vision to fruition and fill a need they see in society. They open brick-and-mortar businesses, launch tech startups or bring a new product or service into the marketplace.
An entrepreneur identifies a need that no existing businesses addresses and determines a solution for that need. Entrepreneurial activity includes developing and launching new businesses and marketing them, often with the end goal of selling the business to turn a profit.
An entrepreneur who regularly launches new businesses, sells them and then starts new businesses is a serial entrepreneur. Additionally, although the term “entrepreneur” is often associated with startups and small businesses, any founder of a successful household-name business began as an entrepreneur.
“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t.” – Student of Warren G. Tracy
Three Steps To Achieving Your Entrepreneurial Goals
The day-to-day life of entrepreneurship never looks the same. As a business owner, you solve problems and navigate challenges everyday. In most cases, entrepreneurship can consume your personal life. This is a natural part of the process, especially at the beginning, but every entrepreneur needs to learn how to find a healthy balance.
Whether your business is just getting off the ground, or you are already settled into the life of an entrepreneur, it’s important to set goals for your personal life and plan for your future. When things go awry or go really well, when business gets rough or when it accelerates, a strategic plan for your personal life will help you stay balanced.
Entrepreneur, investor, author and cofounder of Traffic and Funnels Chris Evans is passionate about coaching entrepreneurs on wealth management, and how to balance personal life. He believes that planning is the key to a happy, successful and fulfilled life. He breaks essential life and career planning down into three categories: cultivating an environment, eliminating ambiguity, and committing to growth.
“The cover-your-butt mentality of the workplace will get you only so far. The follow-your-gut mentality of the entrepreneur has the potential to take you anywhere you want to go or run you right out of business – but it’s a whole lot more fun, don’t you think?” – Bill Rancic, American entrepreneur
4 Reasons Older Entrepreneurs Hold All The Cards
Is it possible for older entrepreneurs to be successful? If so, how can we compete with our younger counterparts and tip the odds of success in our favor?
The first question is easy to answer. While scanning the pages of TechCrunch might make you feel like entrepreneurship is a club for collage drop-outs and genius hackers, the statistics don’t lie. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the number of entrepreneurs over age 50 has increased steadily in recent decades. They point out that, in 2011, 20.3% of the entrepreneurs were over 50. That’s almost 3X the number of entrepreneurs between the ages of 25 and 34.
That’s all well and good, you may be thinking. But, can older entrepreneurs really compete with their younger counterparts? Even if they have the passion, do they have the ideas? If they have the time, do they have the energy? Yes and yes. In fact, there are several reasons to believe that older entrepreneurs hold most of the cards.
Young entrepreneurs want to start their own business before the age of 30, new research shows
For those thinking about opening their own business, it’s time to take the plunge before you hit the big three-oh, according to new research.
The survey of more than 25,000 respondents (age 18-40) across 35 countries asked respondents what age they thought would be easiest to start a business and identified it to be at 28 years old.
For respondents interested in starting a business, 51% worry they won’t be taken seriously because of their age — but they also see their youth as a positive.
In fact, half of global entrepreneurial hopefuls said their age would help their chances of success.
When asked why, six in 10 (61%) said they’re better at adapting to new technology than other generations, and 43% said they’re more likely to have fresh, unexplored ideas.
Get Started on the Right Foot with These 10 Small Business Tips
Since so many small businesses fail in their first few years, a strong start is a must. If you plan on launching a business in 2021, careful planning can make all the difference. Here are tips from members of the online small business community to help you get started on the right foot.
Find the Right Niche for Your Business
Every business needs a specific niche to differentiate it from others in the industry. There are tons of different ways to identify a niche. Read this CorpNet post by Nellie Akalp for tips on finding the right specialty for your business.
Consider a Degree to Help with Your New Business
Education is essential for growing any endeavor. For certain types of businesses, a degree may even help you get started or reach the next level. If you plan to start a new venture this year, it’s worth considering. This post by Geoffrey Tracy on The Franchise King blog discusses the benefits of a degree.
How to Combat the Single Biggest Problem Businesses Face
Executives are problem solvers, but details count when solving the short- and long-term problems their businesses face. A miscalculation or slight deviation in navigation could throw a ship hundreds of milesoff course within just a few days. However, if executives know in advance what small adjustments to make or what details to focus on, many of their problems could be avoided in the long run.
Lots of failed businesses have one thing in common: They settled for the idea that circumstances were out of their control. In fact, many of us have shared that feeling during the last year and a half. A pandemic, a series of lockdowns, political turmoil — we’ve faced so many circumstances that were out of our hands. But it’s how executives address that problem that can make or break their success in the coming months and years.
“We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.” – Arianna Huffington
Setting your company up for success in 2021
COVID-19 forced businesses to rethink multiple facets of their operations, and in some cases to recast them repeatedly, in response to the disease’s shifting geography, Whac-a-mole switches in rules and regulations, and huge changes in customer behavior and the way we work. Last year, we wrote about several of these trends, and the need for leaders to use design thinking to create the customer and employee experiences that would sustain their company through the pandemic.
Today, as vaccines are rolled out around the world (granted, at various degrees of speed and scale), people can start to imagine finding some stability. For the leaders who have been in response mode, it’s time to stop winging it and make a flight plan.
Get in touch with your inner geek. Jack Monson and many special guests discuss social media and digital marketing trends for brands, small businesses, and franchises.
Social Geek Radio was listed as one of 20 Best Business Podcasts according to Emerge and was named to the Best Small Business Podcasts by FitSmallBusiness.com. Recently, Social Geek Radio finally made the Top 25 podcasts in the Marketing category of Apple Podcasts / iTunes.
Get in the Mindset: Achieving Success through a Positive Outlook
A mindset that is fixed, rather than set on growth, can sabotage success. The mind is a really powerful thing. As Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” People with a fixed mindset believe that their abilities, intelligence, and talents determine who they are and they are not able to change their situation. On the other hand, someone with a growth mindset, as the name suggests, believes they can shift and grow and they are not afraid to step into the unknown. They learn and may flounder or fall, but this is what allows them to remain flexible and to grow. Amindset that is fixed, rather than set on growth, can sabotage success.
The mind is a really powerful thing. As Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” People with a fixed mindset believe that their abilities, intelligence, and talents determine who they are and they are not able to change their situation. On the other hand, someone with a growth mindset, as the name suggests, believes they can shift and grow and they are not afraid to step into the unknown. They learn and may flounder or fall, but this is what allows them to remain flexible and to grow.
When you think of workplace courage, your mind might go straight to whistleblowing — calling out unethical behavior, often in the senior ranks of an organization. That’s the example we see again and again in news stories: people who have risked their jobs, entire careers, or even family relationships to report doctored research, for instance, or delays in recalling potentially deadly defective products.1
But whistleblowing is only the most obvious example. Other behaviors that organizational leaders tend to see as “just doing your job” take guts as well. Challenging bosses about strategic moves or operating policies, speaking honestly to peers or subordinates who aren’t pulling their weight, making and owning bold decisions — these, too, are acts of workplace courage.
“If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary.” —Jim Rohn
How to Exponentially Improve Your Performance
“Do your best.” We’ve heard that advice since pre-K, but how often do we really perform at our own personal best? Probably not that often if we’re in the groove of work and family life. And if we’ve been in that groove long enough, neuroscience tells us that the bar for our “best” has probably been lowered.
But thanks to the (newly discovered) plasticity of our brains, we can raise that bar higher than ever—and consistently reach it. How? By pushing ourselves physically and mentally.
New science shows us the absolutely groundbreaking, life-changing power of exercise to rebuild, strengthen and fortify our muscles and brains. With sharpened focus, memory, creativity and motivation, who knows what we could do? So let’s start the rewarding work here. The gold stars will be worth it!
4 Habits That Will Help You and Your Business Bounce Back Into Top Shape
Some call it “Covid pounds.” Others label it the “quarantine 15.” And some refer to it as the “pandemic pounds.”
Regardless of the name, we are emotionally and physically under duress.
According to an American Psychological Association (APA) survey of more than 3,000 people — released a year to the day since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a pandemic — 61 percent of American adults reported undesired weight gain or loss since the coronavirus outbreak.
As if that wasn’t problematic enough, according to the APA’s latest “Stress in America” report, more than two in five of the surveyed adults (42 percent) revealed that they gained more weight than they intended over the past 12 months. And that amount was 29 pounds, on average.
Connecting the Right Brands, People & Opportunities!
The uncertainty of COVID-19 pandemic created the perfect time to diversify and expand. After all, it’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention. To that end, Acceler8Success Group was formed mid-2020, building upon Acceler8Success principles and methods that have proven successful since 2014.
Widely recognized as industry leaders & experts, Acceler8Success Group leadership have extensive experience as entrepreneurs in small business & restaurants, as senior-level executives within nationally recognized brands, and as franchisees within successful franchise systems.
Members of Acceler8Success Group along with Strategic Partners have earned designation as Certified Franchise Executives, Certified Franchise Brokers, Certified Business Brokers and Commercial Real Estate Brokers. Positioned to deliver services within the U.S., Canada and other Global markets, languages spoken include: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German and Russian.
Not every entrepreneur started out as one. As awesome as it sounds to just “start a business,” the truth is that we live in a real world of practical realities. We have to put up with certain inconveniences like paying rent, feeding ourselves, wearing pants, and otherwise being functioning adults. Usually, that means having a full-time job. And having a full-time job means having to build our independent business on the side.
The good news is this: Even with full-time jobs, most of us have more time than we think.
The weekend is the key to transitioning from side-hustler to full-time independent entrepreneur. Using the weekend isn’t a bonus or a matter of “going the extra mile.” It’s a requirement for anyone who’s serious about breaking the shackles of conventional employment and forging their own path. No exaggeration, here, friends: what you do with your weekend will determine whether or not your business makes it.
7 Ways Successful Entrepreneurs Refuel Over the Weekend
As entrepreneurs, we don’t treat weekends like other people do. When the concept of a weekend began, it was because the workweek (Monday through Friday) was supposed to be for labor, and the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) was dedicated to rest.
However, when you’re an entrepreneur, you’re always on. The weekend just means two more work days, and many aren’t dedicating any time to rest. But when we start burning the candle at both ends—eliminating all chances for rest and recuperation—we start working against ourselves and snuffing out our creative energy.
“Work life balance is about creating a life that flows with you rather than a life you have to power through.”~Jaime Marie Wilson from JaimeBoots.com
Weekend Work: How These Entrepreneurs Balance Business and Family
Former Dragon and venture capitalist Bruce Croxon, now 30 years into business building, isn’t shy about how difficult balancing family, hobbies, and work can still be. “It’s one of the hardest challenges we’re facing,” Croxon said in a recent conversation with YouInc. He eschews the traditional belief of balance being 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and no weekend work, “when I think about balance for an entrepreneur, I think: give yourself to something for a period of time, make it successful, sell it, and then take time to do something else.”
We wanted to know what weekend work looked like for entrepreneurs within startup and growth mode, and whether it’s possible to have balance. Three women at the helm of their businesses share their definition of balance, what their weekends look like, and how they manage conflicting priorities…
7 Unique Ways Entrepreneurs Can Decompress Over the Weekend
We live in stressful times and all any of us can do is just relax over the weekend. If you’re tired of spending your weekends watching TV, baking, and reading, perhaps it’s time to change it up a bit. We’ve rounded up some courses and products that can make this weekend a little different, and a little more enjoyable.
Create some music this weekend with help from this bundle. You’ll learn some of today’s most popular music production tools: Ableton Live 10 and Logic Pro X. Why just listen when you can produce your own music?
Drawing can be very therapeutic, even if you don’t know what you’re doing. In this bundle, you’ll learn how to draw from professional artists. Before you know it, you’ll be able to spend the weekend drawing the sights you see from your window.
When stress builds up over time, it can easily become so large that you can’t really see beyond it. You feel blocked from the enjoyment that comes with experiences that normally lighten your mood. Even when you can name those positives, you don’t feel them. Weighed down by stress, restlessness, lethargy, and negativity, it can feel impossible to find your way back to feeling good. But there are ways to feel better.
When you feel stuck in a negative mindset, you may need to force yourself to do things that can help you pull out of it. Despite how it feels — and despite how the news and our lives are filled with the restrictions and difficulties brought by COVID-19 and politics — life is not all bad. At the risk of being labeled Pollyanna, you can benefit greatly from looking for the bright spots and opportunities to make life better.
We use the word busy way too much. We say it when friends ask us how we are doing, as if being busy is an emotion. We use it as an excuse to procrastinate on unpleasant tasks. We use it to sound important at work, because being busy somehow equates to being successful.
But you’re never too busy for 10 minutes, which is all it takes to improve yourself just a little each day. You can de-stress using meditation, yoga or reading. Track your unhealthy spending habits. Learn a new language. The possibilities are endless. Stop prioritizing the busy parts of your life and make time for the important things, such as the constant development of your mental, physical and emotional well-being.
Healthy lifestyles come in different shapes and sizes. But whether you’re a regular on the Spartan racecourse or a rookie in the gym, there are certain actions you can take each day to lead a healthier, happier life.
Healthy people don’t wimp out on their workouts. Come hail or heat, they take their commitment to their health and fitness seriously.
“No matter the time of year, and whether it’s raining or snowing, you still find a way to work out,” says Brooklyn-based personal trainer and SGX coach Morit Summers. “If you’re a runner, you gear up if it’s cold out or you find a gym. You don’t make excuses. You find a way around the barriers to make it happen.”
The benefits of a good night’s sleep are no secret. But many of us still sidestep a regular eight-hour slumber, and often for nothing more than surfing late-night TV or scrolling through our Facebook feed.
Healthy folks don’t, though. They know that lack of sleep can lead to bad moods, fuzzy brains, high blood pressure, and a compromised immune system.
And if you’re in training, research has also shown that slacking on Z’s can interfere with muscle and central nervous system recovery.
My mind loves worst-case scenarios. And yours might too. Our brains are hard-wired to protect us, which means they are hard-wired to look out for danger and worst-case scenarios. Anxious brains are constantly scanning the environment for people, situations, and things that could be dangerous and jumping to “what if” scenarios. Because of this, anxiety can easily spiral out of control.
After years of living in my anxious brain, I searched far and wide for a solution. People would always tell me to “just relax” or “stop worrying,” but I never found it to be that easy. Finally, while earning my Ph.D. in clinical psychology, I found a way to control my spiraling brain and tense body. And it was easier than I thought. Over time, I learned to quiet my anxieties using one word.
How to Identify Your Entrepreneurial Skills and Redefine Them to Match Your Business?
Do you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur? What makes someone a successful entrepreneur, anyway? There is no one defining the characteristic of being an entrepreneur. It certainly helps to have strong expertise in a key area, but there is more to being an entrepreneur than being an expert on a particular subject matter.
No matter how you choose to define being an entrepreneur, getting there requires a lot of hard work and determination. So, let us take a delve into the makings of an entrepreneur. What makes a business person? How do you find out that you are destined to be an entrepreneur?
Though there have been many studies on the subject, researchers have not been able to find out one definitive answer. What they do know is that successful magnates have certain traits in common.
No matter your business, leadership style or level of experience, there is a book that will inspire you, make you think differently and help you stir change where it’s needed.
Members of Young Presidents’ Organization were asked for their top book recommendations and received everything from autobiographies to how-to’s, ancient scriptures to rap-lyric management.
5 Ways to Successfully Market Your Small Business on Social Media
As a small business owner, chances are, you turned to social media within the last year to engage with your customers. But with limited time and resources, it can be difficult to know where and how to invest your time strategically on social media.
To help you get ahead of the competition, I’ve listed a few ways for you to successfully market your small business on social media. By applying these lessons, you’ll be able to effectively connect with your customers, build brand awareness and brand loyalty, and most importantly, increase revenue.
Small businesses across America are revalidating the essential lesson of Charles Darwin and driving the post-crisis economic rebound in the process.
The term “small business” covers half the American workforce, in tens of millions of companies that made it through the darkest days of the pandemic. It sweeps in more than 4 million owners who chose to start a new venture in 2020 — the largest single-year increase in new business originations in at least a decade, and perhaps ever, according to data from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Soon to follow are all the entrepreneurs who are watching a post-crisis world take shape and preparing to place that proverbial bet on themselves.
The resilience is unmissable, and the pendulum is swinging in the right direction, behind factors spanning massively available capital, pent-up consumer demand and all the survival-inspired innovations that are now permanent extensions to pre-virus business models.
But that’s only because we haven’t learned it yet.
I’ve spent a significant amount of time with billionaires. I’ve studied them extensively, and here’s what I’ve discovered: Billionaires are billionaires because they all follow a set of unique perspectives, or principles, that help them persevere where others find challenges.
I call these 10 principles “The Billionaires’ Success Framework.”
Connecting the Right Brands, People & Opportunities!
The uncertainty of COVID-19 pandemic created the perfect time to diversify and expand. After all, it’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention. To that end, Acceler8Success Group was formed mid-2020, building upon Acceler8Success principles and methods that have proven successful since 2014.
Widely recognized as industry leaders & experts, Acceler8Success Group leadership have extensive experience as entrepreneurs in small business & restaurants, as senior-level executives within nationally recognized brands, and as franchisees within successful franchise systems.
Members of Acceler8Success Group along with Strategic Partners have earned designation as Certified Franchise Executives, Certified Franchise Brokers, Certified Business Brokers and Commercial Real Estate Brokers. Positioned to deliver services within the U.S., Canada and other Global markets, languages spoken include: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German and Russian.
Emotional Challenges You’ll Face as an Entrepreneur
No doubt, entrepreneurship requires a whole lot of mental energy. With its highs and lows, excitement and fear—which you may feel all at once—there are times when time feels too short and failure seems to be lurking close by.
These feelings might not be fun, but they’re normal. After all, choosing entrepreneurship means you are choosing risk, acknowledging that the chance for failure is alive and well.
So, if you find yourself overwhelmed by the psychological challenges of entrepreneurship, remember that they’re all part of the journey—the destination you wanted and needed to go on. Building something out of nothing is not simple, which is why it’s commendable that you’ve chosen this path. It’ll get better, the challenges growing less intimidating and more controllable, if you just keep going.
While the world begins to return to some semblance of normalcy in a post-pandemic era, there is no doubt that Covid-19 has forever changed our experiences, especially for the working world and entrepreneurs. But this is a good thing, for a lot of reasons.
One of the best parts of being an entrepreneur is the ability to work for yourself from virtually anywhere. This is a concept that became normalised for many non-entrepreneurs during the pandemic and helped boost the profits for many new and existing entrepreneurs alike.
Every situation is thus a learning experience and entrepreneurs have the opportunity to learn a great deal from it.
Have you ever considered running your own business, but doubts assail you and uncertainty stops you? It is not for less because only a small percentage of the new businesses that are created manage to survive: ” 82% of the new companies do not reach four years of life” . This is what the economists Oriol Amat and Pilar Lloret indicate in their book “Advancing, keys to survive and grow”.
Working for yourself has a special appeal because you can be your own boss. However, the path to becoming a successful entrepreneur can be tortuous since not all of us are trained to take charge of their own business, especially those who are used to working for others and who also do not have financial notions basic. Entrepreneurship is not easy, especially if what we want is for the business to last over time and generate wealth for us.
The global economic crisis of recent years has pushed many people to undertake en masse, but am I really ready to undertake?
Managing These Three Resources Is The Key To Entrepreneurial Success
Managing money and assets is one of the most critical parts of being a successful business owner. Yes, you need a good idea, an unwavering spirit, and a dedication to your company, but a foundational key to your success is understanding resource management.
Entrepreneurs have many types of resources available to them, only one of which is monetary capital. Let’s break down the top three assets entrepreneurs need to manage—money, time and knowledge—and how to maximize impact.
No matter what level you are at on your journey to success, you could probably stand to learn from someone else’s expertise. Want to see your money and your company go further? Consider investing in a business coach. When you are ready to take the next step in your company, and have a handle on some of the basics (like payroll, insurance, and billing), a business coach should be your next financial investment.
When it comes to resale value, franchises beat non-franchise businesses, according to a new study from Palm Beach Atlantic University’s (PBA) Rinker School of Business.
After examining 2,159 business resales over a ten year period, the researchers found that franchise businesses sold at a 1.5 times higher price than non-franchise businesses. In addition, small businesses in the food/restaurant category sold at a .5 times higher price than other personal and professional small business categories.
“Our research supports the value of a franchise branded business,” said Dr. John P. Hayes, director of PBA’s Titus Center for Franchising. “If two people operate the same type of business over a period of years and enjoy similar sales, the franchise business is more likely to sell at a higher price point. Business owners ought to be aware of that information in advance of launching a business.”
The study titled “Determinants Impacting Resale Premium Disparity when Selling a Small Business: A predictive Non-Linear Approach,” will be published in the Fall 2021 issue of the “Journal of Business and Economic Studies.”
Franchisors and Franchisees Must Learn to Deal with Change
If there is one thing that the Pandemic taught us, especially those in the franchise industry, is that certain events both large and small require change. It is a given that the recent Pandemic represents extraordinary change having last occurred 100 years ago. Franchise brands face frequent challenges requiring change including, a formidable new competitor, franchisee resistance to certain promotional programs, declining franchise system growth or a public relations problem like when the Subway Foot Long Sub, was found by a customer to be less than a foot long. When these situations arise, franchisors and franchisees must be equipped to implement change to meet the challenge.
Expect that franchisors will be required to implement changes to their franchise program from time to time some minor and some major. When a franchisor wants to make a change, based upon the magnitude of the change, it should be communicated to the franchisees before the change is implemented providing advance notice.
What You Really Need to Look for When Considering a Franchise
Buying a franchise is a fantastic way to become a business owner. If you’re interested in acquiring one, many people will offer to help. All of them have an interest in your purchase, typically a percentage of the sale. It’s a market like any other.
But a franchise is a major purchase. Your decision should be based on your or your family’s interests in mind. You need to be able to look past the hype, promises and tactics to find the opportunities that are best for you. That requires knowing what factors really matter when evaluating options.
Most articles about franchise selection outline the obvious considerations. You want something you find interesting and something affordable. You want to work with an accomplished franchisor who provides good training and ongoing support. You want to read their Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) to explore all the nooks and crannies of the business. You need to crunch the numbers to get a better estimate of the costs to run the business in your area.
Note: Scott Greenberg’s The Wealthy Franchisee: Game-Changing Steps to Becoming a Thriving Franchise Superstar can be purchased from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
The Role Timing Plays in Your Decision to Buy a Franchise
Buying a franchise is an investment. Specifically, an investment in your future.
That said, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for you to want to look at investing in a franchise the same way someone who’s involved in the world of finance looks at investing. For example…
“Buy low and sell high. It’s pretty simple. The problem is knowing what’s low and what’s high.” – Jim Rodgers, American investor, and financial commentator
Makes sense right? In franchising? Absolutely.
According to YCharts.com, as of April 2021, the S&P 500 two-year return was 41.94%. (The S&P 500 two-year return is the investment return received for a two-year period, excluding dividends, when holding the S&P 500 index.)
For the purpose of this post, if a portion of your money was invested in the U.S. stock market for the last couple of years, you were able to keep your job, and you kept your household expenses in check, you may be positioned right for franchise business ownership.
Why the Hiring Crisis is a Moment of Reckoning for Restaurants
The stories of restaurants struggling to find labor aren’t subsiding. Texas Roadhouse CEO Jerry Morgan said last week, as year-over-year sales skyrocketed 126.7 percent in April, “challenges continue to exist in this environment, the biggest being staffing.”
The steakhouse chain is getting plenty of applicants, “but not everybody is really motivated to get a job,” Morgan said.
There’s been an unusual uptick in no-shows. Turnover is actually lower than historic levels, but employees simply aren’t turning up for interviews.
“And maybe that’s because of the payments that they have,” he said, referencing the $300 weekly unemployment boost extended through the beginning of September in President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
“The money is coming to them a little easy, just my opinion, but that’s where our concern is,” Morgan said.
This is the pulse of today’s labor debate for restaurants, which has surged to the forefront of the industry’s COVID-19 recovery story.
With the summer months rolling in, restaurants being brought to full capacity and tourist season getting into full swing, it is important that your establishment stay ahead of consumer trends to best serve your guests. Aside from the obvious health and safety and delivery trends, there are a few others that, if incorporated, will have guests coming back again and again. Here we take a look at a few of the top restaurant trends for summer 2021.
Tasting menus where guests get to sample various new and popular dishes have become extremely trendy in today’s restaurant scene. These menus create a festive atmosphere and give guests an opportunity to try a variety of flavors. They are a favorite of foodies across the globe and give your chef a chance to show off their skills, creativity, and versatility.
Luis Mota had no interest in running a ghost kitchen.
When he first opened his Mexican restaurant La Contenta in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 2015, he was actively against delivery, as “the food suffers too much,” he says. A restaurant, to him, is about “sitting, enjoying, relaxing,” none of which are possible when there’s only takeout and delivery and no dining room.
But then last March the pandemic decimated business at both his restaurants, forcing him to lay off much of his staff and survive on loans from the government. He had been about to open his third restaurant. Instead, he turned that space into a ghost kitchen, creating a short menu of popular items, ponying up for the hefty fees charged by third-party delivery companies, and spending thousands of dollars on takeout containers and paper bags. He’s saved some money in staffing by making the switch, but he’s just barely covering his costs through sales.
Based on current trends, ghost kitchens will be integral to the future of the food industry. The global ghost kitchen market is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2030.
As QSR Magazine explains of the ghost kitchen model, “It’s an ever-more-appealing prospect as the $17 billion U.S. online food delivery market climbs toward a projected $24 billion by 2023, according to data portal Statista.”
Ghost kitchens won’t be going anywhere when Covid-19 social distancing measures ease. Philadelphia-based restaurateur Branden McRill explained this to the Today Show:
“The appeal of this flexibility and the variety of options won’t disappear when the pandemic is behind us, McRill said. Think about how we used to go to the movies, he said, when you had to watch whatever you could get tickets for at the time it was showing, vs the streaming era now, ‘where people want to get exactly what they want at exactly the time they want it,’ he said. People have short attention spans too, he said, and constantly want to try new things. More traditional restaurants will be hard pressed to keep up, he added.”
As they look forward to the future of dining, it seems likely that more and more traditional restaurants will invest in the virtual kitchen model.
The world is becoming more digitized every day. Pushed by a pandemic that forced a large part of the workforce and academia to operate remotely, virtual life has become a norm.
The virtual world is being supported by a myriad of new and exciting technologies including artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and exponential connectivity to both people and objects. The virtual communication trend is rapidly expanding across industry, academia, and government.
Collaborative and interactive work environments are trending in industry. Before the pandemic, already many workers were operating from their homes and telecommuting. That number has grown substantially since Covid19. Offering a virtual employment capability allows for a more flexible, adaptive, and productive workforce.
Virtual business is integral to the emerging “Gig Economy” being reinforced by the millennial generation. Virtual communications combined with virtual reality will become integrated into business applications. It can also serve as an outlet of entertainment; and already is in gaming at attractions such as “Soaring” at Disney World. It is a booming virtual market. The AR market is expected to reach $70-$75 billion in revenue by 2023 and it is estimated that 500 million VR headsets will be purchased by 2025. Augmented and Virtual Reality Statistics in 2021 | AR & VR Stats (ukwebhostreview.com)
The Calm Before The Storm: How The Pandemic Recovery Will Change Business
It’s almost summer and the Pandemic is starting to ebb, so everyone’s talking about Hybrid Work. But as I think about the Fall and year ahead, I think there’s a bigger storm coming – a storm caused by the recovery. It’s not a bad storm, but it’s a storm – and the rate of change is going to be violent. In this podcast, these changes are discussed.
“A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.” – Nolan Bushnell
Here Comes the Great Resignation. Are You Prepared for the Ensuing Talent Shortage?
Have you read the news? The Great Resignation is coming. Anthony Klotz, a Texas A&M University academic who studies organizational management trends, told the media recently that employers should expect a significant exodus of talent as the job market continues to stabilize.
Klotz explained that when there’s economic and societal volatility, employees tend to stay in jobs, even less than ideal ones. This means that the pandemic delayed resignations among those highly motivated to quit. Additionally, those who have begun to search for more meaningful work and balance, inspired by spending more time at home, are also prepared to job switch.
This means that the hiring market tide (which had already begun to turn in favor of job seekers) is going to roll in even faster. By mid-Summer, it is anticipated that there will be more employers looking for talent and more highly motivated top-tier candidates on the move.
Covid-19 has presented the business community with some unique challenges. The near-shutdown of the economy has destroyed many companies and adversely affected the way we conduct business. One of the most challenging areas business entities, executives and teams have had to face is working remotely.
In contrast to the pre-Covid-19 environment, many of us found ourselves in new territory, seemingly handicapped by the lack of human interaction. A sense of anxiety ensued whereby questions arose such as: How will we collaborate? How do we stay on task? How do we snoop on our subordinates (well, maybe not this one)? How do we recruit new talent without meeting them face to face?
Virtual Businesses Take Off: How to Start a Fully Remote Business
In the age of remote work and social distancing, it’s easier than ever to launch, grow and run a business without the need for a physical office or in-person meetings. If you’re considering exploring this path, though, it’s important to have the right technology, systems and processes in place.
Whether you’re launching a new company or transitioning a previously in-person business to a permanently remote one, here’s what you need to know about running a fully virtual business.
The Necessity Of Women Supporting Women In a Virtual Revolution
It is no secret that women supporting women is absolutely critical to our growth and evolution. Not just for women, but the difference it makes to society as a whole. But we don’t spend nearly enough time thinking about ways to extend this initiative into our virtual reality. The truth is, women need equal if not more support online to navigate the complexities of human interaction, from conducting business to building relationships or even surfing social media.
As any woman will tell you, the Internet can be a really dark and often dirty place for us. Whether its unsolicited sexual harassment sliding into our DMs or the deep anxiety and fatigue of swiping through everyone else’s “perfect lives”, women particularly are struggling to maintain their identity and self-worth without constantly looking for virtual validation so they can use technology to their benefit.
And as the global market moves increasingly online, many women entrepreneurs are running their entire businesses virtually. Communities that enable and encourage these women to connect with each other provide opportunities for collaboration and livelihood. And if the pandemic has taught us anything it is this; that our reality is going to become only increasingly virtual.
Working from home stress is remarkably common for remote employees. That’s why learning how to take care of your mental health when working from home is crucial for today’s ever expanding remote workforce.
Managing your mental health at work is just as important as reaching your project goals and maintaining high levels of productivity. Issues associated with employees who work from home, such as loneliness and burnout, are on the rise — especially with employees who have never worked from home before.
Remote work is no longer just a perk. Today, it’s a necessity for many. When your house doubles as your workspace, it can lead to difficulty setting boundaries, added career pressure, issues managing workloads, and more. These are just some of the reasons many find it difficult to work from home full time.
Employees that have transitioned to remote work may also have the added pressure of working with children in the house, and catering to their family’s needs while trying to stay engaged and productive at work.
How to Stay Calm When the People Around You Are Stressed
As we continue to deal with the challenges that come with the pandemic, it’s only natural to feel stressed from time to time — and you might notice that your colleagues, friends, or family members seem tense as well. While we want to be supportive of the people in our lives, being in contact with all that stress can have a negative domino effect, and further prevent us from staying calm ourselves.
“I try to start my mornings with a meditation, and it gives me a sense of calm to carry me through the day. It varies day to day from three minutes to even forty, depending on how much time I have, but I try to never miss this space. If there’s something bothering me or that I want to reinforce during the day, I search for an assisted meditation on that topic.” – Brunella Mori, senior project manager, Peru
What Are the Myths You Hold About Your Personality?
When you consider the past events in your life, what do you believe define those key turning points? How do you reply when people ask you to tell them about yourself? You might choose to focus on the so-called “objective” facts such as where you grew up and when you graduated from school. Or, if the situation calls for more reflective answers, you might talk a bit more about what it was like growing up in your family or what factors led you to make some of your major life choices.
Perhaps you’ve noticed that at each retelling of your past life experiences, some of your answers have taken on an automatic quality where you don’t even have to think about how to respond. As this so-called narrative about yourself starts to take shape, the details may shift, but overall, it will have some type of theme or organizing framework.
Why is Positive Thinking the Key to Overcoming Obstacles?
These days, when we are facing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), we hear about new cases and deaths around the globe on a daily basis. The numbers have been growing already for several weeks. Despite the tremendously hard work of doctors, nurses, scientists, lab technicians, policemen, and many other heroes, nobody knows how long this situation will last, and when we will be safe again to meet our families, friends, and colleagues face to face. Our heroes put their health at risk, I dare to say, even their lives. This looks like operating in a war zone. We all live in uncertainty and many of us live also in fear. We are afraid to lose either our loved ones, our jobs, clients, or our income. And those fears are normal.
However, we should find a way to think positively and believe that everything will be fine again because it will! And we need our positive minds in order to be stronger and motivated to take action, to go through those tough times.
Negative thoughts and negative emotions are not helpful. They eventually enter our minds and stop us from taking action towards where we want to be. I would recommend that when you catch yourself having those thoughts and emotions, thank them for being there. No kidding! They serve their role – they send you a message that something needs to be improved, changed. Then, make time for positivity and start identifying steps to make changes.
How Covid Inspired a New Generation of Entrepreneurs
Humans normally respond to big unforeseen shocks in one of two ways: either they recoil from risk-taking like we saw after the Great Depression, leading to creation of the modern welfare state and a generation that feared the stock market; or they accept that risk is part of life and learn to embrace it — like they did in the Roaring Twenties after the 1918 flu and 1920 recession.
So far it looks like we’re going with the 1920s — at least from an economic risk perspective. Entrepreneurship rates are up.
That might seem counterintuitive. After all, the past year was exceptionally hard on small businesses, leading many to shut down. But the number of new business applications from the U.S. Census is up 38% compared to the year before the pandemic. Nothing similar to this happened during the Great Recession or dot-com bust. The Census classifies two types of business applications, those that will probably grow and hire other people (called High Propensity applications), and business that will stay small and mostly limited to its founder. The latter dominates the “all other kinds of applications” category, and may include things like consulting, contract work, or small-scale catering.
Economist John Haltiwanger dug into the data and estimates that most of the new businesses will probably stay small, not hire more workers, though application rates are up for both kinds of businesses.
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” – Steve Jobs
The New-Era Entrepreneur
In the midst of global economic uncertainty and a rapidly changing social environment, many entrepreneurs find themselves in a state of panic. For many in the new age of entrepreneurship, this is the first major “disruption” in business activity that they have experienced. Running a business and maintaining the status of self-employment was never an easy task, and it just got a lot harder. However, with the proper mindset and affinity for innovation, success is still on the horizon.
The good news is, there are a few core principles in the world of business that will never change and are arguably now more important than ever.
First, the allure of authenticity and value. In the post-pandemic economy, this is truer than ever. The era of “fake it till you make it” is long over and gives room for a new, value-centric market.
Study: Black Entrepreneurship in the United States
A steady stream of media reports detailing the deaths of unarmed Black Americans at the hands of police. False 911 calls aimed at bringing harm to African Americans engaged in innocuous, everyday activities. Street protests calling for an end to discrimination and police brutality.
One problem? A lag in Black entrepreneurship and corresponding deficit in Black businesses available to support — a result of hundreds of years of racial discrimination in the United States — says Tiffiany Howard, a UNLV political science professor and recent Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) senior research fellow.
In a new study, Howard and her CBCF colleagues researched strategies that large banks can implement to help bridge the economic divide.
Why Entrepreneurship Is the Engine of Economic Development
We often hear that entrepreneurship is important, but it’s hard to overstate just how vital entrepreneurship is for the economy at large. Entrepreneurial activity, or in other words, the creation of new businesses, is what supports local economies, what supports our country’s GDP and what helps the stock market continue to grow.
So why is it that entrepreneurship is such a powerful engine of economic development?
Why are new jobs so important? Economic growth is partially dependent on job growth. More available jobs lead to more people working, and more people working leads to higher GDP. On top of that, more people have recurring income and can better provide for their families.
This can also create a kind of cascade of entrepreneurship; more people work, have an opportunity to save up money and can then start businesses of their own.
12 Questions You Might Be Afraid to Ask About Entrepreneurship
Back when I was a naive college junior, sitting across from my soon-to-be boss in JP Morgan’s San Francisco high-rise office for my final interview, he handed me the floor to ask any lingering questions about the role. Darren reminded me that I was interviewing him and their company, just as much as they were interviewing me. Little did I know, those days of “ask me anything” interviews would end the moment I hopped off the Wall Street treadmill.
Entrepreneurship, in contrast, doesn’t have welcoming bosses-to-be, comprehensive detailed job descriptions, or any cohesive environment in which to get all your questions answered. It’s more like voluntarily throwing yourself into a chaotic body of rapidly flowing waters all alone, with only two choices: swim to safety or die trying. When the treacherous current kicks your brain into survival mode, you suddenly realize you’re all alone, with no one to answer the questions sprinting through your head.
If that’s how you view or experience entrepreneurship, you aren’t alone — most first-time or early-stage founders feel similarly like they’re flying blind, with no one to turn to. That’s why I’ve compiled 12 of the gnawing questions you may be too afraid to ask as you embark on the entrepreneurial journey.
5 Success Tips for the Serial Entrepreneur Entering a New Industry
The term “serial entrepreneur” isn’t very common in business circles, but I believe that some people are built for that kind of practice. A serial entrepreneur is an entrepreneur who continuously comes up with new ideas and starts new businesses. As opposed to a typical entrepreneur, who will often come up with a single idea, start the company, then see it through and play an important role in the day-to-day functioning of said company.
A serial entrepreneur will often come up with an idea and get things started, but then give responsibility to someone else and move on to a new idea and a new venture. This would have been a very bad practice in the days when the old cliché held sway, “a Jack of all trades is master of none.” In my opinion I think the 21st century has become “the century of the Jacks.”
As a serial entrepreneur myself, I know how challenging it is to leave the comfort of a thriving business and step out into the icy cold waters of starting a business again, much less in a different industry. However, in 2017, I decided to stop suppressing all my new and unique ideas and just get on with it.
An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it. – Roy Ash
Here’s Why Entrepreneurs Make The Best Marketers
The best marketers are those who know how to build a brand, scale it for rapid growth, and cultivate long-term success. They understand the essentials of marketing because they have lived it first hand. I’ve learned countless strategies in the process of becoming an entrepreneur and evolving as a business leader.
Whether or not you are a founder yourself, you need an entrepreneurial mindset to be a successful marketer. Here’s what I mean: entrepreneurs are compelled to take their message and mission further because they are wholly devoted to its success. An entrepreneurial mindset means being totally sold on your company’s mission and having the ability to communicate it clearly.
But, if you’re a marketer reading this, you may not have the rounded experience of an entrepreneur. That’s okay – you just need to adopt the mindset. Here is what an entrepreneur-driven marketing strategy looks like, and how you can implement it for yourself.
How These 10 Latinx Small Business Owners Persevered and Overcame Challenges
Latinx entrepreneurs are making incredible contributions to the world of small business. According to a recent study conducted by The Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (SLEI), Latinx entrepreneurship has grown 34% in just the last ten years.
Yet, that doesn’t mean that success comes easily. These ambitious Latinx entrepreneurs don’t just have to overcome self-doubt or know how to pivot quickly during moments of a business slowdown. They also face significantly less access to funding and can face discrimination in their communities.
Despite the obstacles, Latinx entrepreneurs consistently identify strategies to move their businesses forward, share their culture, and succeed on their terms.
New Moms Can Fix the Entrepreneurship Gender Diversity Gap, If We Help Them
Fix the gender diversity gap in entrepreneurship? Focus on supporting female entrepreneurs who are starting a family.
Sure, there are mentorship programs, female-focused incubators, books and podcasts to “lean in” or “lean out.” But how about policies supporting parents so they can actually found and grow companies, to ultimately diminish inequities in entrepreneurship.
Did you know the average startup founder is in their early 40s? And why are they mostly men? Because by the time a future entrepreneur cuts their teeth, builds the expertise, saves up to bootstrap, they’re right at the baby-rearing age window. And, by that “baby time” (let’s call it that, say) there are new choices that need to be made by women.
Women don’t have to make the same choices and considerations as men when deciding to start a family, I don’t care what you say.
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. – Thomas Edison
15 Tips On Becoming a Successful Female Entrepreneur from MeetingPlay’s Owner, Lisa Vann
According to the US Chamber Foundation, only 2% of women-owned businesses have 10 or more employees. Only 1.3% of venture-backed companies have a female founder. And though technology is one of the fastest growing industries in the US – less than 25% of those who work in the tech industry, are female.
As the owner of an engagement driving event technology business with nearly 30 employees and growing daily, Lisa Vann continues to break through the barriers of women entrepreneurs in the technology industry.
Get in touch with your inner geek. Jack Monson and many special guests discuss social media and digital marketing trends for brands, small businesses, and franchises.
Social Geek Radio was listed as one of 20 Best Business Podcasts according to Emerge and was named to the Best Small Business Podcasts by FitSmallBusiness.com. Recently, Social Geek Radio finally made the Top 25 podcasts in the Marketing category of Apple Podcasts / iTunes.
The Digital Entrepreneur is for people who want to discover smarter ways to create and sell profitable digital goods and services. Tune in weekly as Sean Jackson, Katy Katz, and a host of experts give you the strategies and insight you need to start building your digital business … the right way.
Entrepreneurs on Fire is one of the leading business podcasts today. Hosted by John Lee Dumas, it has won the Best of Apple Podcasts award, and has over 2,500 episodes and 85 million downloads. What makes it exceptionally unique from most other podcasts is that new episodes are released every day.
Dumas aims to inspire and educate young entrepreneurs in this show. To that end, he interviews legends of business growth and financial freedom. Some of his guests include Tony Robbins, Seth Godin, and Tim Ferriss.
This podcast is for anyone who is looking for some inspiration to enhance their business and entrepreneurial journey. If you want to listen to real stories of the world’s top leaders and entrepreneurs, then we recommend checking out this show.
Tim Ferriss is yet another name we can’t leave out when talking about success in business and entrepreneurship. As an entrepreneur and author, he is most popular for his bestselling book titled “The 4-Hour Workweek.”
His podcast celebrates the successes of a variety of people. He interviews famous individuals like LeBron James, Malcolm Gladwell, and Ray Dalio to talk about how to be successful in the field you have chosen.
For people who’d like tips and guidelines on how to be successful in their businesses just like their favorite celebrities, this show is the answer!
How to Identify Your Entrepreneurial Skills and Redefine Them to Match Your Business?
Do you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur? What makes someone a successful entrepreneur, anyway? There is no one defining the characteristic of being an entrepreneur. It certainly helps to have strong expertise in a key area, but there is more to being an entrepreneur than being an expert on a particular subject matter.
No matter how you choose to define being an entrepreneur, getting there requires a lot of hard work and determination. So, let us take a delve into the makings of an entrepreneur. What makes a business person? How do you find out that you are destined to be an entrepreneur?
Though there have been many studies on the subject, researchers have not been able to find out one definitive answer. What they do know is that successful magnates have certain traits in common.
The Top 15 Traits That Guarantee to Make a Successful Entrepreneur
Starting your own business is a big step. You want your passion to be recognized and appreciated by people who share similar interests. Or, maybe they didn’t know they needed something until you introduced it to them! Yes, the process is intimidating, but being an entrepreneur also means you are the writer of your own success story. While you may not know where to start, remember that even the most successful entrepreneurs were in your shoes at one point in time. How did they do it?
We use the word busy way too much. We say it when friends ask us how we are doing, as if being busy is an emotion. We use it as an excuse to procrastinate on unpleasant tasks. We use it to sound important at work, because being busy somehow equates to being successful.
But you’re never too busy for 10 minutes, which is all it takes to improve yourself just a little each day. You can de-stress using meditation, yoga or reading. Track your unhealthy spending habits. Learn a new language. The possibilities are endless. Stop prioritizing the busy parts of your life and make time for the important things, such as the constant development of your mental, physical and emotional well-being.
Our Image of an Entrepreneur Desperately Needs an Update
“Young people are just smarter,” Mark Zuckerberg infamously said to 650 aspiring entrepreneurs at a Y Combinator Startup School event in 2007. His logic was straightforward—young people lead simpler lives, so they’re able to focus on big-picture problems. Now that Zuckerberg is in his thirties, I’m not sure he’d still agree—in fact, I’m confident he wouldn’t.
But this idea continues to resonate. Silicon Valley still fetishizes youth, and a lot of people probably see 22-year-old Zuckerberg as the archetype of a founder. Research confirms that many people perceive young entrepreneurs to be more driven and more capable of solving significant challenges.
There’s just one problem. A substantive and growing body of data tells us this picture is dead wrong. A study released in 2017 reveals that the average age of a startup founder is 42. The rate of new entrepreneurs in the US is actually highest among those aged 45-54, and lowest for 20-34-year-olds.
16 Young And Successful Entrepreneurs Who Prove That Age Is Nothing but a Number
Self-employment has been blossoming over the past decade. In this age of internet and technology, people are now more confident to try and sell their ideas and hit the road to success. With even the basic skills like knowing how to create a website[1] or marketing products online, people can reach out to the world and showcase their talent.
A study conducted in the year 2015 revealed that about 14% of the total working population in the U.S. was into running a business of their own and we all know that the numbers have been growing since then.
Each day while we drive, when we shower or go through a boring lecture, our minds come up with some of the most intriguing ideas that can potentially become big business plans, but we tend to ignore them as we are never looking to make anything out of it. Our brains are idea machines, but only a few of us go ahead to make these ideas big.
One of the most common complaints of the people who bloom late and succeed in the later ages of their lives is that they didn’t dare enough to sell their ideas sooner. Ironically, one of the most common excuses among the youth is that they are not old enough to start their own business. It is never too early or late to become successful in your life.
In early April, a Thai student in our entrepreneurship class saw a shortage of high quality, low cost hand sanitizer across Thailand. To support the Covid relief effort and generate revenue, he quickly shifted his family’s medical supply company to sanitizer production. Closer to home, when Dollaride, a business incubated in NYU’s Future Labs, recognized that the pandemic had eliminated demand for their shared commuting van business in New York, they refreshed their business model to leverage their existing vans, technology, and routes to support burgeoning package delivery demands.
Neither entrepreneur followed a typical business school approach when deciding to pivot their business: they didn’t conduct a long-term market analysis, develop a business plan, or weigh various alternative approaches. In fact, had they done these analyses, they might have concluded that the short-term gains wouldn’t justify the retooling investment, or they might have gotten stuck trying to figure out how to estimate the duration of the pandemic or how soon global manufacturing might recover. Instead, they simply took action based on the resources at their disposal.
The importance of youth entrepreneurship is huge. Yet sometimes, teachers and professors do not know how to promote entrepreneurship among youth properly.
Things have changed a lot in the last 20 years. Teenagers do not have the same attitude and mindset as before. Youth entrepreneurship becomes more and more popular on a daily basis. The development of Internet Technology gives us many business opportunities. It really doesn’t matter how old you are. Everyone has equal chances to achieve his business goals.
Because of that, it doesn’t need to surprise us that youth entrepreneurship became some kind of trend.
Entrepreneurship is a unique field in which many of the most successful people are actually quite young and found their success in their early twenties, rather than decades later after years of climbing a corporate ladder. There are many reasons why young people are well-suited to entrepreneurial success, and as long as they have the ambition and confidence to move forward with their ideas, these young people are likely to continue to dominate this field.
That said, it’s important that we reinforce their capabilities and equip these adolescents, teens, and young adults with the tools, resources, and support to try their hand at entrepreneurship in the first place. This encouragement can come from supportive parents, entrepreneurial clubs and programs in schools, and business-building extracurricular programs like Beta Bowl, that help give students their first positive entrée into the world of entrepreneurship. In case you needed a refresher on why teens are such perfect candidates for entrepreneurial success, just keep reading.
Recently, the Kauffman Foundation released its annual Index of Entrepreneurial Activity looking at entrepreneurism in the United States. Here’s a breakdown of some of their numbers that give us a good picture of what entrepreneurs look like today.
Entrepreneurism has increased greatly within the Latino community, up to a 20% share of all American entrepreneurs from just 11% in 1996. Asian entrepreneurs increased to 6%. The percentage of black entrepreneurs declined slightly, going from 8% to 9% in 2013. White entrepreneurs made up 76% of entrepreneurs in 1996, but just 61% of entrepreneurs in 2013.
Diversity In Entrepreneurship: What We Can Do To Create A Level Playing Field
What inspires someone to become an entrepreneur?
I’ve often wondered what gives some people the energy and focus to take their idea and turn it into reality. I know so many others who dream but don’t ever take action to venture out on their own. They love working and contributing to an organization as part of a team and enjoy the security that comes with it.
But for some of us, entrepreneurship is like an itch that demands to be scratched. For me, it’s the challenge of creating something that makes an impact on people’s lives.
Creating a viable business requires more than just a great idea. There are the long hours and a commitment to doing the work without knowing if your work is going in the right direction or not. Of course, it also requires capital, sound decision making, strategy, the right team and luck. Without these ingredients, the business starves and fails. And even with these, the odds are the business will not make it.
New businesses are popping up every day. In fact, an estimated 550,000 open up each month just in the United States.
Of these businesses, approximately 60 percent are launched by men, but women aren’t far behind, launching businesses at six times the national average. Of these female entrepreneurs, African American women are the fastest growing demographic.
Unfortunately though, launching a business doesn’t equate to success. Three-fourths of new businesses only last a year. Your best bet is to open a business in finance, insurance or real estate, which have the highest survival rates in the country.
Don’t let that discourage you though. The world needs entrepreneurs and new businesses: They create jobs, offer new products and/or services, help the economy grow, boost communities and sometimes even spark social change.
Black Americans share in flurry of business startups
There has been a surge in startups in America that experts have yet to fully explain. But a new study — using data that allows researchers to more precisely track new businesses across time and place — finds that the surge coincides with federal stimulus, and is strongest in Black communities.
Across a number of states, the pace of weekly business registrations more than doubled in the months after the The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act was signed in March 2020. Business registrations rose again, by 60%, around the period of the supplementary aid package signed in December. Coinciding with the third wave of stimulus in March, weekly business registrations have been up by 20%, but the data is less complete.
Small Businesses Have Surged in Black Communities. Was It the Stimulus?
Over the last year, multiple stimulus measures from the federal government have helped families buy groceries, pay rent and build a financial cushion. This aid might have also helped start a new era of entrepreneurship.
There has been a surge in start-ups in America that experts have yet to fully explain. But a new study — using data that allows researchers to more precisely track new businesses across time and place — finds that the surge coincides with federal stimulus, and is strongest in Black communities.
Across a number of states, the pace of weekly business registrations more than doubled in the months after the CARES Act was signed in March 2020. Business registrations rose again, by 60 percent, around the period of the supplementary aid package signed in December. Coinciding with the third wave of stimulus in March, weekly business registrations have been up by 20 percent, but the data is less complete.
Women are founding companies at a historic rate, with more than 9 million women-owned businesses in the U.S. today.
Over the past 15 years, these women-owned firms have grown at a rate 1.5 times other small businesses and are estimated to provide more than 5 million jobs by 2018.
There’s still a long way to go though — female-led businesses only make up 30 percent of companies around the world. There’s much opportunity ahead — businesses with at least one female executive team member are more likely to receive higher valuations in their first round of fundraising.
5 Tips for Female Entrepreneurs to Improve Their Odds of Business Success
If you want to achieve long-term success as a female entrepreneur, it is imperative you learn early on how to increase your odds of success. Developing a strategy early to improve the growth trajectory of your career is one of the savviest moves you’ll make as a woman in business. Whether you’re a mompreneur building your own home-based business or a female startup founder launching what you hope will be the next unicorn startup, how you approach the growth rate of your entrepreneurial career is crucial. If you want help learning how female entrepreneurs can improve the growth trajectory of their careers, bear the following five essential tips for entrepreneurs in mind.
Stretch outside your comfort zone in terms of business development and marketing ideas. If all you’re willing to do is try the same growth activities every other female entrepreneur is using, how will you ever achieve remarkable success or have your business become a viral sensation? Be willing to try new methods to grow your company, and you’ll increase your chances of entrepreneurial success in the process.
Lack of funding:Guidant Financial reported that 74% of women has to raise the required funds to establish their businesses.
Network Access: In a male-dominated business world, women can find it difficult to find the right mentors or network.
Lack of information: Women are unsure how to get started or even find relevant information sometimes.
Being taken seriously: A Swedish qualitative study concluded that venture capitalists believe that female entrepreneurs were unsubstantiated compared to male entrepreneurs.
Balancing business & family life: In general, 30 is where entrepreneurs start a venture, and that’s also around the same time of starting a family.
Inclusive Entrepreneurship: A Roadmap for a More Equitable Future
Imagine an ecosystem where entrepreneurship is open and accessible to everyone.
Then picture a space founded on the belief that entrepreneurship can level the playing field by giving all entrepreneurs an equal opportunity to start and run a business – irrespective of gender, race, and so on.
Sexism, racism, and other forms of systemic inequality have long meant that conventional entrepreneurship was ill-equipped to unlock the full potential of women and people of color, who often lack access to critical resources for business growth. That is, until now.
9 Entrepreneurs Share Their Thoughts on the Future of Entrepreneurship
Every waking day, we are having tremendous changes in regulations and technology which greatly affects the way businesses operate. Some entrepreneurs will say the future is definitely bright but to others, some of these changes are meant to work against their expansion and business operations. Additionally, there’s growing empowerment and embracing of individuality which motivates more people to begin their entrepreneurship journey. But the big question, what’s the future of entrepreneurship?
Learn what entrepreneurs had to say about the future of entrepreneurship at Hear.CEOblognation.com.
The Future of Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century
For years, becoming an entrepreneur has been the goal of many a would-be business owner. The lifestyle, flexibility of working hours and the ability to set yourself up financially, potentially for life, is a call that thousands each year find difficult to ignore, taking the leap and setting out on their own business ventures.
What puts a large fraction of potential entrepreneurs off, however, is the inability to decide what kind of business they are best to venture into in the first place. What do consumers favor in 2020, and what will make you more likely to succeed? Is it innovative ideas, bringing something completely new to the market? Is it about keeping a keen eye on consumer trends and new markets? Or is it perhaps all about embracing the move towards sustainability and using business to ‘give back’ to the world around you?
What do anger, shame, remorse, guilt, frustration, overwhelm, indecisiveness, scarcity, and fear all have in common? When an emotional response occurs, the amygdala – the part of the brain most often referred to as “snake brain” takes hold, causing you to “process” the emotions. What’s actually happening then is that we’re living a memory from the past in the now – a form of time travel: the mind knows no different.
It’s up to you how you want to leave it though. The way you feel is determined by how you linked those two things. The way you feel when you’re triggered again is about how you link them now. When you’re inspired, it’s the same except you’re applying excitement or fear to the life you could have, not the life you do.
Whether or not to give up. It’s the question that hits every aspiring entrepreneur at some point. It’s rooted in the deepest of anxieties.
It’s scary because some business ideas SHOULD be given up on.
But there’s only one reason you should ever quit. Before we get to that, we’re going to list off all the insidious, bullshit, self-deception reasons that cause entrepreneurs to give up on their dreams.
You’re about to read ten far too common reasons that entrepreneurs use to give up on good business ideas prematurely.
Because of these different types of toxic thinking, people cheat themselves out of hope and possibility. They give up, and lose their ticket to the most powerful personal-growth experience of all: Taking a business idea and turning it into an empire.
Perseverance – The MOST Important Quality of Entrepreneurs
Perseverance (noun)–persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.
Perseverance in entrepreneurship is necessary if you seek success.
The hardest part in entrepreneurship isn’t finding the initial spark. It’s a few months in (or even years), once you realize your business isn’t moving as fast as you want it to.
Every entrepreneur has a day where they are launching. They think, “This is it, I’m about to kill it. I’m finally going to start bringing in some real money.” Then majority of the time, it falls flat on its face. This happens to many people because we learn through failure.
“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powel
It would be awesome if your business succeeds on the first try but that rarely ever happens. Most of success comes from doing your best and then learning from what did or didn’t work. This does not give you an excuse to fail. Every attempt is still a shot at success. However, when you fail, you must understand why and improve the next time.
Deliberate practice refers to a special type of practice that is purposeful and systematic. While regular practice might include mindless repetitions, deliberate practice requires focused attention and is conducted with the specific goal of improving performance.
The Qualities That Define a Successful Entrepreneur
Being a successful entrepreneur means more than starting new ventures every other day. It means the right attitude towards a business and the determination and grit to achieve success.
A successful entrepreneur has a strong inner drive that helps him or her to succeed. Let us take a look at the qualities that go into making a successful entrepreneur.
An entrepreneur should be excited by the prospect of work. They should always have a strong drive to succeed and overcome obstacles. They should not only set big goals for themselves but also see that they are actually committed to achieving them regardless of the countless setbacks that occur.
A successful entrepreneur always has a strong sense of self-confidence and a healthy opinion of their skills and abilities. Their personality is assertive and strong. They are always focused and do not really dilly dally with the issues at hand. This is what makes them different from the rest.
An entrepreneur should always be on the lookout for new innovations and ideas in order to emerge as a winner. They should constantly reinvent themselves and think of better ways to run a business and improvise on the products and services offered by them.
How to Open New Doors of Opportunity and Wake Up Fulfilled
Everyone is screaming to live a meaningful life and do something that matters. You look on all the bookshelves and at social media influencers, it’s a common message to find your passion. It begs the question though, are those same people living the life they desire? I am sure many are living a life fulfilled but there are so many that aren’t.
If that was the case, we would not be fighting against an identity crisis. The majority of the world would not be living in stress, anxiety and wake up every morning fighting to get out of society’s imposed rat race. We know at a basic level that life is meant to be filled with excitement and that we desire to have an impact.
The problem is that most individuals do not understand this, otherwise people would not continue to open up the same doors to life. Those doors include going to school, getting a degree, finding a job, getting married, having kids and then crossing your fingers that you work hard enough for 40-50 years in order to actually start enjoying your life!
Jonathan Frederick is the host of a successful podcast called the Heart Healthy Hustle Show. He specializes in interviewing force for good entrepreneurs and is a student of life. In this G-FORCE Influencer Interview, Britnie Turner, Founder and CEO of Aerial and G-Force Mastermind, talks with Jonathan about the blessings in disguise and how we can capitalize on current opportunities.
““There’s a difference between taking advantage of a crisis and capitalizing on an opportunity that is happening during a crisis.” – Jonathan Frederick
Jonathan describes pain as the catalyst for his podcast. During a period of being “broke” in all areas of his life, his faith steered him in the direction to serve the greater good. Today he shares 3 practical exercises to help you realize your gifts, unique abilities and understanding that your voice matters.
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney, founder Disney
What is the Difference Between Possibility and Opportunity?
They have two very distinct meanings yet I hear those two words used interchangeably a lot. Possibility means something might happen if you do it yourself whereas Opportunity means if someone gives you a set of circumstances that you adhere to, it might happen. I can see why people use it either way at times. Yet one you have more direct control over than the other.
I have been given lots of “opportunities” over the years. At the very beginning of my business I remember people telling me that if I did something for them at no charge it would by my opportunity to demonstrate my skillset. Hmmm, well maybe they were on to something? However, after a while I could see that they couldn’t see any value in what I did and I was being “had”.
Yet when I was offered a “possibility”, it was up to me if it happened or not. It was made possible for me to be on the team for the Social Media Summit Ireland 2 years ago. It was easily one of the most transformative times of my career. I say this because I took the initiative and worked on this for free. In return I was given valuable experience, access (to speakers and the event) and met some amazingly talented people that I have since worked with and strengthened other relationships I had already had.
4 Entrepreneurs on What Made Them Take the Leap into Business Ownership
Every entrepreneur has a different story when it comes to what made him or her finally take the leap into launching that first business.
For some, it’s a choice made in hopes of finding more freedom and flexibility. For others, it’s an opportunity to grow and challenge themselves beyond what they can do in a normal job.
We wanted to hear some real stories from different entrepreneurs to see what it was that made them finally take the leap at start their own business journeys.
Ready To Take The Entrepreneurial Leap? Read This Business Visionary’s Advice First.
Do you have visions of owning your own business someday? Then you just might be an entrepreneur.
However, even if you fantasize about becoming your own boss, that doesn’t mean entrepreneurship is the answer— according to Gino Wickman, the innovative mind behind the groundbreaking Entrepreneurial Operating System, founder of EOS Worldwide, and author of the bestselling book Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business.
As a business owner who has benefited from Gino’s expertise myself, I was thrilled to chat with him about everything entrepreneurship. Throughout our conversation, he discussed how aspiring entrepreneurs can learn if that life is right for them, and if so, what they can do to jumpstart their journey.
Two Ways Entrepreneurs Can Turn Perfectionism Into Progress
We’ve all had experiences where we attempted to start a new project, but struggled to make progress and complete it. However, the reason we haven’t completed that project isn’t because we are lazy, unmotivated, or didn’t have the time. The real reason is because of a sneaky little affliction called perfectionism.
Over the last few weeks, two friends (who are also entrepreneurs) decided to finally launch new websites for their businesses. The problem is, each of them had been kicking around the idea for months and still had nothing to show for it.
The problem wasn’t their motivation, abilities, or that they were too busy. Rather, perfectionism was preventing them from making progress. Perfectionism caused them to get distracted by all the potential details and decisions that could be made in the process of creating a website. In the end, this lack of focus prevented them from making progress.
Balancing professional and personal life is a challenge for everyone these days; more so, for women. Given the traditional way our society looks up at our women, they are expected to maintain both, their work as well as their family life, perfectly. With the emergence of more and more women as entrepreneurs and businesswomen, it is very important to learn how so many women these days are handling their work and personal life so nicely.
Women of the 21st centuries can be easily referred as superwomen! They not only manage a total 9-5 job but also make sure that there home is not falling apart. They deal with both, domestic responsibilities and work-place related stress. They handle business meetings and conferences smoothly and, at the end of the day, have spent quality time with their family. How do they do that? How do they constantly maintain the balance between work and life? It sure isn’t easy.
Five Steps For Female Entrepreneurs To Minimize Stress
Since opening our business 15 years ago, my business and life partner and I have experienced just about every possible pitfall that entrepreneurship can throw at us, including government audits. In that same period, we raised our oldest son and had three more wonderful children. I’ve nursed an elderly family member, caring for their end-of-life needs, renovated two homes, maintained a happy marriage and kept my sanity most of the time. So when I talk about stress, I am speaking from a position of knowledge and understanding.
As I see it, life is made up of three elements: personal life, work and home. I have learned that if one of these elements is out of kilter, life can become stressful, and negative thoughts can dominate your mind to the point where you become unproductive. When two elements are unstable, it overwhelms your thinking to the degree that it is hard to get anything done at home or at work. It takes a very emotionally and physically strong woman to consistently and personally see to the needs of others, which is essentially what you do as a business owner.
A dear friend of mine once said, “Life turns you into an expert at things you never chose to become an expert at.” This resonates with me a lot as an entrepreneur and mother of two. It’s one of the worst stereotypes these days to see a businesswoman who is also a mother and ask, “How do you do it?” Do men ever get asked that?
The fact of the matter is, female entrepreneurs have a whole different skill set than their male counterparts, and this is out of necessity. Far be it from me to look at this and think that we’re forced, kicking and screaming, to learn to work harder, smarter, and more efficiently than our male peers. In my experience, it’s best to approach the challenges by thinking, this is a gift.
16 Ways Working Women Can De-Stress and Decompress at Work
Have you ever had one of those days where you sit down at your desk and never look up from your computer til the sun has gone down? Ever had one of those days when you end the day tightly wound and needing a stiff drink and a lot of self-care? Yes, us too. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can leave work more relaxed than when you arrived. De-stressing during your workday — using a number of methods, from meditation to a walk — is important, and there are many ways that can help working women de-stress at work in less than 30 minutes.
Take a walk… It’s the easiest thing to do to de-stress at work and costs nothing. Take a walk outside. See the sun. Breathe the air. Don’t take your phone. If you can, work up a smallish sweat to get your heart rate pumping. If there’s a nearby park or trail, head there and “forest bathe.” (Forest bathing, or “Shinrin-yoku,” for the uninitiated, is simply, walking or sitting amongst many trees). Walking, even as a little as 20 or 30 minutes, according to studies cited by Prevention magazine, “can have the same calming effect as a mild tranquilizer.” One book, Exercise for Mood and Anxiety: Proven Strategies for Overcoming Depression and Enhancing Well-Being, discusses the benefits of walking for mood.
8 Funny and Relatable Experiences That All Entrepreneurs Go Through
The road to becoming an entrepreneur is often difficult, treacherous and filled with unexpected roadblocks and detours. Those who embark on this journey do so because they are driven, independent-minded and probably a little crazy. In a good way, of course!
The most successful entrepreneurs have a clever mind, strong business acumen and a deep and abiding sense of humor that keeps them going when they hit the inevitable rough patches that come with any business.
If you’ve ever hit a tough spot, know that you aren’t alone. Here are 8 experiences showing that all entrepreneurs go through challenges. The trick is to keep your head up and keep moving forward.
9 Of The Craziest Things Founders Have Done To Make Their Startups Successful
We’ve all heard the stories of people dropping out of college to work on their startups, living on their friends’ couches, or eating ramen every day for a month.
Some ambitious entrepreneurs take this to the next level, going the extra mile to make their businesses successful.
We’ll take a look at the lengths startup founders go to get their companies off the ground, from AirBnB’s wacky fundraising side-business to PayPal giving away money to get initial users to join.
It’s important to state from the outset that there is no magic bullet that can transform you into a rich and successful entrepreneur overnight. However, for those prepared to work hard to succeed, there is an almost formulaic blend of entrepreneurial skills that can help set successful businessmen/women apart from the rest.
Being an entrepreneur means you are your own manager, as well as manager of others. Your skills need to be extensive in order to to be successful. An entrepreneur should be able to effectively manage people, a budget, operations and in some instances, investors. This requires a multi-tasking work style, planning for both the short and long- term goals of their business. A successful entrepreneur must be able to make wise decisions about how he uses his time, continually evaluating and prioritizing tasks according to relevance and importance. This means including short and long-range planning and the ability to participate in economic forecasting and market research.
Another important factor with many reasons is getting enough sleep. When you sleep, your brain signals your body to release hormones. This helps you focus, and protects and strengthens your memory. The best sleeping hours are between 12am-8am as our bodies have a better blood circulation at this time. This, in turn, contributes to creative thinking, memory processing and positivity. One wakes up with a sense of domination ‘’ I am going to conquer as I give my 100per cent.’’ Maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle is a must! Exercise regularly as it also promotes deeper, more restful sleep. One also gets a chance to sweat out their stress and troubles that a successful entrepreneur faces in life.
How Do You Become an Entrepreneur Without a Passion
One of my most vivid childhood memories was biting into a Mrs. Fields chocolate chip cookie and hearing the story of the housewife with a passion for baking cookies who created a national chain. The story resonated deeply with me and, from a young age, I’ve always associated passion with business success. Our society loves a passion to profit story and we pepper our lives with quotes from people like Meg Whitman. “Do what you love and success will follow. Passion is the fuel behind a successful career.” We are so crazy for passion that there’s now a whole economy devoted to it. Adam Davidson wrote a book about it called, “Passion Economy.” A quote of his that always stuck out to me,
“For most of them it was a long struggle, and it went in unexpected ways. You’re not born with passion — it’s not that on your twenty-first birthday, you either have it or you don’t, and then you’re done. In fact, I think working on understanding your passion is so valuable that it’s okay — and maybe even good — that it can take 10, 15, 20 years. When I talk to people, it’s not just, ‘Sit around waiting until you have your passion, and then you’re good to go.’ It’s, ‘This is your project. Figure this out and experiment, try things out, pay attention, listen to people.’”
The passion economy allows anyone to produce content that can be monetized by their audience via digital platforms. Now, entrepreneurship is attainable for anyone with a passionate point of view and a WIFI connection. It feels like anyone can make it happen, but what if you don’t necessarily have a passion project or honed skill to sell? Does that mean charting your own professional course is off limits?
“Here’s to your entrepreneurial success. Make it happen. Make it count!” – Acceler8Success Founder, Paul Segreto
GEM study proves importance of entrepreneurship when there is a decline in the economy
Based on nearly 140,000 interviews with adults from 46 economies across the World, this is a study of entrepreneurial activity, attitudes and ambitions that has been gathering data since 1999.
However, the 2021 report is particularly relevant as the data has been collected during a Covid-19 pandemic that has decimated national economies, and therefore this is one of the first international measurements of the business lockdowns on levels of entrepreneurship. It is also important in trying to assess whether, as in previous recessions, entrepreneurial activity will again drive economic recovery across the World
So what are the main findings of the 2021 GEM report? With only six GEM countries reporting that less than one in three adults had experienced a decrease in household income due to the pandemic, the study again demonstrates the importance of entrepreneurship as an income generating alternative when there is a decline in the economy especially in poorer nations.
“One of the most important things I have learned is that businesses don’t fail, entrepreneurs give up. Now sometimes, giving up is the right decision. But usually you just need to dig in and figure out how to make things better. Remember: Every day is a new opportunity to get up and do it better than yesterday!” – Adda Birnir
60% of Small Businesses Expect Revenue to Grow in 2021
Well over half (60%) of small businesses expect their revenue to increase over the next 12 months. This compares to fall 2020, when just 34% of small business owners were confident of increasing revenue.
This positive statistic about the outlook of small businesses after the unprecedented disruption of 2020 and early 2021, was unveiled by the Bank of America.
Bank of America’s 2021 Small Business Owner Report was based on a survey of nearly 1,000 small business owners. The survey was conducted in March 2021. It reveals that economic confidence and business outlook is witnessing a rebound.
56% of participants say they are confident the local economy will improve, which is a significant rise from 39% last fall. Half of respondents anticipate the national economy will expand, up from 37% in fall 2020.
3 Workplace Habits Every Entrepreneur Needs to Survive the ‘New Normal’
We are all longing for the same goals right now — a sense of peace and safety for ourselves, our families, and our businesses during this unprecedented time. No matter what our belief systems may look like, we are all trying to establish some sense of belonging, to be secure, and to have days that are purposeful and productive.
In business, while everyone talks about this “New Normal,” entrepreneurs are left to establish what that looks like for their own lives, and without a guidebook of any kind, this task is a tall order. Each day brings change and, as of right now, there is no end in sight.
The beauty in this situation is that we all have an amazing opportunity in front of us to grow, expand, and ultimately, lean into becoming our absolute best, because we need that in order to continue moving forward. We have space to create and find purpose, and we have time to pour into our businesses like never before.
Now, perhaps for the first time, you’re the one writing the rules … all of them.
What it Takes to Grow a Successful Business and Keep Your Spot on Top with Alec Stern
Growing a business is not a walk in the park. But Alec Stern, also known as “America’s Start-up Success Expert” and co-founder of Constant Contact, has made his way to the top and speaks with Dr. Diane Hamilton on growing successful businesses and scaling companies among various industries throughout the years. He shares his insights on the different ways business owners can propel their way to success, pointing out the importance of what you do with your idea and how you can use it to your advantage. If you’re ready to make your business work and grow, learn Alec’s secrets and make your way to the top.
Get in touch with your inner geek. Jack Monson and many special guests discuss social media and digital marketing trends for brands, small businesses, and franchises.
Social Geek Radio was listed as one of 20 Best Business Podcasts according to Emerge and was named to the Best Small Business Podcasts by FitSmallBusiness.com. Recently, Social Geek Radio finally made the Top 25 podcasts in the Marketing category of Apple Podcasts / iTunes.
The podcast industry has exploded with growth over the past several years, and that growth has extended to entrepreneurial podcasts as well. There are over 1.5 billion podcasts globally as of Oct. 2020, according to PodcastHosting.org.1
And, don’t forget to check out Investopedia’s recently launched podcast, The Investopedia Express, where Editor-in-Chief Caleb Silver digs into the most important stories in finance and global economics.
Black Entrepreneurs Start Businesses At Higher Rates Than Other Groups, Analysis Finds
Black entrepreneurs start businesses at higher rates than other groups and have high rates of female entrepreneurship, according to a new analysis by researchers at Babson College.
The research shows consistently higher rates of entrepreneurship among Black Americans. On average from 2014 to 2018, about 20% of the Black population in the U.S. started businesses — compared to roughly 12% of the white population and nearly 13% of the Latino population — the analysis found.
The research analyzes data from the college’s annual “Global Entrepreneurship Monitor” studies over the last five years, which includes a survey of over 3,000 adults in the U.S.
These Entrepreneurs Launched Startups During COVID-19 — Here’s Why You Can Too
Recently, there has been a huge spike in applications for business tax numbers. The unusual economic environment brought on by the pandemic has led to a renaissance of America’s business dynamism, which had been lagging for some time. The recent crisis appears to have begotten a new class of entrepreneurs that, either through necessity or another compulsion, is set to fill the decimated ranks of the small business sector. A study by the Federal Reserve found that 9 million US small businesses fear they won’t survive the pandemic. What’s causing this revival of the entrepreneurial spirit? It may be a while before we find the answers, but let’s take a look at a few possibilities.
For the US, the year 2020 was the worst of times but also in some ways, the best of times. The pandemic raged across the nation, taking lives, destroying livelihoods, spreading fear, and dispensing uncertainty. The only defense to its onslaught was the valiant efforts of medical personnel and first responders. Fortunately, vaccines were developed remarkably quickly to turn the tide. Nevertheless, the public health toll has been devastating. As of April 10, the US had recorded 31.2 million cases of coronavirus infection, and over 560,000 Americans have succumbed to COVID-19.
Economic activity fell off drastically. In Q2 2020, US GDP contracted at an annual rate of 32.9%. For the entire year, it fell by 2.3% ($500.6 billion) to $20.93 trillion. (For comparison, GDP had increased by $821.3 billion in 2019.) The unemployment rate rose to 14.8% in April – a level never before reached since data collection started in 1948.
“Moms do whatever it takes to get things done. But we live in a constant state of guilt. Balancing it all—it’s tough,” says Pina Romolo, founder of Piccola Cucina, and mother of two.
Pina isn’t alone. The pandemic has exposed the impossible balancing act that society demands of working mothers—and how incompatible our ideals of the “good mother” and the “career woman” are. More than that, it’s shown us how unsustainable the nature of work has been for women with children.
And while the data is clear that the pandemic has driven mothers out of the workforce, what’s less clear is how they will re-enter the workforce when all of this is over. We’re optimistic that the nature of work is changing—and based on new Shopify research, we think that mothers may be seeking a healthier work-life balance through entrepreneurship.
Another Resource for Entrepreneurs at Acceler8Success Cafe
We fully understand the importance and necessity for today’s entrepreneur to be well-informed. We also acknowledge that an entrepreneur’s time is limited, and quite valuable.
As such, and as part of our commitment to entrepreneurial success at all levels, we will do the heavy lifting and review podcasts & videos we know will help entrepreneurs achieve their goals. Then, each weekend we will share what we believe to be of interest to our growing list of current and aspiring entrepreneurs, and as a complement to daily editions of Acceler8Success Cafe.
Connecting the Right Brands, People & Opportunities
The uncertainty of COVID-19 pandemic created the perfect time to diversify and expand. After all, it’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention. To that end, Acceler8Success Group was formed mid-2020, building upon Acceler8Success principles and methods that have proven successful since 2014.
Widely recognized as industry leaders & experts, Acceler8Success Group leadership have extensive experience as entrepreneurs in small business & restaurants, as senior-level executives within nationally recognized brands, and as franchisees within successful franchise systems.
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