5 steps to Job freedom

If you are looking to have a true sense of freedom with your career and to finally find a job that affords you the freedom that you desire, then there is no better path than becoming an entrepreneur.

Here are five steps that you can take on your journey to becoming a self-employed, free and highly successful individual.

1. List your skills.

Before you can make a career for yourself utilizing your skills, you need to know what your skills are. Take the time to write down all of the skills that you have. Be honest with yourself and think about the skills that you really possess, not just the ones you wish you had. This will be your basis for determining what you can feasibly do with your future.


2. Write down all your goals in life.

In order to start growing and building your future you need to know what you are growing towards. Take the time to write down all of the goals that you have in life. Use these goals to motivate you on your quest towards freedom. What do you really want? To make a certain amount of money? To buy a house? To travel. Think about it and write it down.

3. Write down your dream jobs.

What is your dream job? What type of work would you do if anything in the world was open to you? Write down what your dream jobs are and then stop thinking about them as dreams. What is holding you back from taking that dream and make it into a reality? A list of dream jobs will help you realize what you truly want out of a career.


Continue reading

SOURCE: ENTREPRENEUR

How Your Business Can Thrive Even When a Recession Bites Hard

1. Leverage an urgent consumer need.

“Recession does not mean that the people suddenly stop spending money," said Will Rees, director of Worktop Express. "Price comparison certainly becomes higher up the agenda, but people don't buy on price alone. In my opinion, there is a real shift in priority towards value, during a recession. The consumer will carry out a fair degree of research -- and will usually choose to purchase the item that represents the best compromise between price and quality."

For instance, plastic credit cards were created to deal with the problem of fading cardboard credit cards. Airbnb came about as a new way to face the issue of expensive lodging, and it's still doing well. For similar reasons, companies like PayPal, 2Checkout and TransferGo are also still thriving: they solve the funds-transfer problem.

2. Source capital from investors.

If you have a promising project or business model, pitch your business idea to an investor. The objective is to solicit enough funds to get the business up and running and unleash its full potential to hit it big in the market.

3. Find creative alternatives.

During the 2008 recession, companies were closing down their branches due to the cash crunch. Macy's took a different path -- it took to creating virtual stores on the internet where customers could buy products from the convenience of their homes. Other companies, like Ford, Alaska Air and VW, also found creative alternatives.

Coming up with convenient, innovative and cost-effective alternatives will make your business more attractive to consumers. This is because during a recession, consumers look out for better deals.

Read more here

SOURCE: ENTREPRENEUR

10 Success lessons from Travis Kalanick – “CEO of Uber” for entrepreneurs

Here are the 10 success lessons from Travis Kalanick – “CEO of Uber” for the entrepreneurs,

1. Find something broken that you’re passionate about

The idea of Uber came when Kalanick faced the simple problem of finding a cab in Paris. Whether it’s Amazon or Google, every big business we see today is helping people solve a problem making their life that much easier and better. When your business is based on solving a specific problem, you add value to the life of your customer.

2. You will make mistakes; Learn and move forward

Kalanick is known to be brash and confrontational. When it comes to defending his company practices, he has stood against taxi industry, rival cab companies, local regulators and sometimes even his own customers. He is incredibly driven by what he does and is not afraid to show it. But there have been times when he has admitted that he probably take the right approach.

3. How hard is your problem?

The more difficult the problem, more effective would be the solution and that in turn would click with consumers. Travis calls himself the Problem Solver-in-charge at Uber

4. Roadblocks may slow you down but don’t let them stop you

Uber has had its fair share of difficulties and still is fighting regulation in new markets. The company even had to fight existing laws to expand it’s business. From cab unions to city regulators, while Uber takes every effort to make commuting as seamless as possible for its customers, it’s own journey has been very rocky. But every step of the way, Kalanick has stood his ground by doing what he calls ‘principled confrontation’.

5. Do not be afraid to start small

Just five years ago, Uber was only a four-person team in San Francisco. Like in any new venture, it was a difficult time with crunched resources and most of the effort went into keep the business afloat.

    
6. Adventure, doing the impossible is all entrepreneurship is all about!

The Uber team spent four weeks in Varkala beach in Kerala coding. Travis is a firm believer that doing the impossible is all entrepreneurship is all about. Talking about seeking adventure, he adds that Uber decided to do the impossible by trying to enter China, a market that almost no foreign company has been able to gain a foothold of.

Continue reading

SOURCE: KNOWSTARTUP

10 Success lessons from Jeff Bezos – “Amazon Founder and CEO” for entrepreneurs

1. Be Stubborn and Flexible

According to Bezos, good entrepreneurs must be stubborn and flexible. When referring to Amazon, Bezos says, “We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details.”

Sticking to the vision is the first part, and being flexible about the tactics is the second part. Bezos adds, “If you’re not stubborn, you’ll give up on experiments too soon. And if you’re not flexible, you’ll pound your head against the wall and you won’t see a different solution to a problem you’re trying to solve.”

2. Base your strategy on things that won’t change

Selling lipstick, tractor seats, e-book readers and data storage is all part of one big plan with three big constants: offer wider selection, lower prices and fast, reliable delivery

3. Determine what your customers need, and work backwards

Specs for Amazon’s big new projects such as its Kindle tablets and e-book readers have been defined by customers’ desires rather than engineers’ tastes. If customers don’t want something it’s gone, even if that means breaking apart a once powerful department.

4.Make employees think like owners

When Bezos wrote this in the first Amazon annual letter, Bezos had 614 employees, up from 158 a year earlier. It has 230,000 now.

One key component of the approach has been to use stock options in hiring. “We will continue to focus on hiring and retaining versatile and talented employees, and continue to weight their compensation to stock options rather than cash,” Bezos wrote in the 1997 letter. “We know our success will be largely affected by our ability to attract and retain a motivated employee base, each of whom must think like, and therefore must actually be, an owner.”

5. “We are willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time”

Many of Amazon’s expansions look like money-losing distractions at first. That sometimes sends the company’s stock price skidding and evokes analysts’ scorn. Bezos shrugs. If the new initiatives make strategic sense to him, a five-to-seven-year financial payoff is okay.

6. Build a culture that’s right for your company

Amazon’s own culture is famously breakneck-paced, and notoriously cost-conscious, as befits a company that has run only a small profit, or a loss, under generally accepted accounting principles for most of its life as a public company.

“We never claim that our approach is the right one — just that it’s ours,” Bezos wrote in the 2015 letter. “Over the last two decades, we’ve collected a large group of like-minded people. Folks who find our approach energising and meaningful.”

Read more here

SOURCE: KNOWSTARTUP

10 Inspirational movie quotes for entrepreneurs

1. A Beautiful Mind

    “Find a truly original idea. It is the only way I will ever distinguish myself. It is the only way I will ever matter.”

If you are going to build a company, set out to do something nobody else has done before. If you are working to solve real pain for real people, you will truly distinguish yourself from the competition.

2. The Aviator

    “Don’t tell me I can’t do it; don’t tell me it can’t be done!”

Along the way you are going to hear from a lot of naysayers. People who are skeptical or don’t have the fortitude to do what you are trying to do. If it were easy, everyone would do it. Don’t let the insecurities of others hold you back.

3. The Godfather

    “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

You are going to be doing a lot of negotiating. You will be securing new partnerships and working to recruit top talent. What can you offer that nobody else can offer? If you are selling

4. Jerry McGuire

    “The key to this business is personal relationships.”

From customers to partners to employees, many times success comes down to one thing: the people. To build a great company you need to find great people. If you don’t nail that you are going to be fighting an uphill battle.

5. Pirates of Caribbean

    “Even a good decision if made for the wrong reasons can be a bad decision”

The decision-making process of a startup is one of the most important parts of the culture. How do you make decisions? What are your principles? Are you making decisions that yield short-term gain but create long-term pain? If you are not making decisions for the right reasons, then you may find that decision will create more trouble later on.

Read more quotes here

SOURCE: KNOWSTARTUP

3 Things That Matter if You Want to Be an Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs are born, not made. If you have an entrepreneurial mindset, you will know it. Successful entrepreneurs share three core attributes:

Leadership ability

At some point, you will see something that no one else sees. You will be able to develop a vision based on what you see and then convince others to commit time and money to help you explore opportunities and options. This is why founder-led businesses have greater success — the founders establish stronger corporate culture, define opportunities, and then provide the leadership needed to attract investors and employees.

An entrepreneur has the ability to create a vision that others usually can’t initially see themselves, and then serve, in effect, as the “backbone” of that vision.

Single-minded obsession

To put it bluntly, building a business is incredibly hard and requires careful attention to detail. Let’s face it: A company founder has to drive it all, tracking every detail and becoming obsessed with the company’s success. It’s not a lifestyle — it’s more like a disease, almost a form of addiction. Starting a company is not for the faint of heart.

Resilience

The stress that entrepreneurs experience is almost impossible to describe. Obviously, starting a company is nothing like working for a company.

But what you never do is give up. You have to be resilient, tenacious, and persistent no matter what.

No great businesses would be built if every entrepreneur gave up when things got tough. It gets back to those three characteristics of great entrepreneurs. When things get tough, remain obsessed and resilient as you lead your company to success.

More details here

SOURCE: FORTUNE

7 Keys to Finding That Perfect Mentor For Your Business

Why is it that only the most successful entrepreneurs, including Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Richard Branson, admit to having a mentor and actually use them?

Starting a new business is tough, and the last thing you need is to suffer the same mistakes that have killed businesses like yours before you. Yet many entrepreneurs I know are too proud or too shy to even ask for advice.

Most successful business people, whether retired or still active, would love to share some of the wisdom they have gained from their own experience, but are not inclined to impose themselves on others.

They expect you to take the initiative, to ask them, and to make it a fun and productive relationship. Here are some guidelines on how to make that happen:

1. Identify specific issues and goals where you need mentoring

First, you need to admit that you want mentoring, and in what areas. If you don't have any idea what you are seeking, you won't know when you have found it. It's tempting for technical founders to seek more depth on technical issues, when they need marketing and financial help.

2. Be willing and able to commit time and effort to the process

Finding a mentor won't help you if you don't have time to listen, and are not willing to do your homework to ask the right questions.

Mentors are people too, so they will quickly sense when they aren't valued. Sessions must always remain positive and not defensive, rather than excuses.

3. Ask for a reasonable time commitment from a mentor candidate

Even the best mentor may be of no value to you, if you can never reach them, or they never find time for you. Then make sure you never make yourself a burden by frequent calls or wasting time on trivial subjects.

The best approach is regularly scheduled small blocks of time.

4. Prepare and plan to lead each mentor session for best productivity

Don't expect the mentor to know and drive your business. Provide the mentor with your relevant business metrics and data, if possible, before each meeting, to allow them to do prior homework as required.

The most valuable insights may be for broader or future business implication.

Continue here

SOURCE: INC