July 2012
2 posts
9 tags
Connecting Online Entrepreneurs
Are you wondering where to find other people with exciting visions, a drive to change the world, and a willingness to take the risks necessary to build a business? I’ve been looking around for quite some time and I believe that they are hard to find. Most people are fine with a normal career and a decent salary. There are a few social networks for entrepreneurs and co-founders out there,...
8 tags
Dublin's No. 1 Start-Up Hub is Expanding
Interesting news for anyone starting a business in Dublin, Ireland: Central Hub Dublin is currently expanding and they are offering flexible and affordable office space for start-ups and IT entrepreneurs. The focus at this hub is innovation in marketing and technology, and they are creating a Silicon Valley-like environment where creative entrepreneurs work closely together and share ideas,...
June 2012
1 post
3 tags
Your First Step in Building an Online Strategy
The first step any business should take when starting to build an online marketing strategy is simple: Listen. You won’t know how to best approach the market and the online audience until you have listened properly. It’s the same rule as for professional sales: Listen first and find out what the needs are, then apply the appropriate tactics and resources to efficiently get the message across....
May 2012
2 posts
6 tags
Guidelines for Online Interactions
There are a few basic guidelines which you should always keep in mind when it comes to eMarketing and your approach to online interactions. These are Authenticity, Transparency and Real-Time Response. Authenticity Today’s customers and visitors are smarter than ever before and are looking for authentic, value-adding content and communications. As a company you need to keep this in mind at all...
5 tags
eMarketing in 4 Steps
This article is based on resources and guidelines from quirk.biz, however interpreted by myself. The development of an eMarketing campaign is a process consisting of 3 main parts: Think, Create and Engage. Each part should then be improved in a continuous process in the 4th step: Optimize. Think Perform the necessary market research and make sure to understand what your potential customers...
April 2012
2 posts
5 tags
Co-Founder Screening Call
One way to find co-founders for a start-up is by advertising on online boards and networking sites. To find out which respondents to pick for face-to-face meetings some of the standard recruitment questions will be very useful. First have a quick look at the candidate’s CV and make sure his or her skills are relevant to your business, then pick the phone up and find out about the...
5 tags
A European Silicon Valley?
Any European who is into IT and start-ups has probably been on the lookout for a European equivalent to Silicon Valley. A few places have been suggested as potential candidates, but the reality is that very few of the IT start-ups which make it big start off in Europe. This seem to be caused by fundamental, structural differences combined with a different mindset.
Europe is very divers; there...
September 2011
1 post
6 tags
4 Marketing Methods for Startups
1: Invest Time, Energy and Imagination When running a small business or a start-up you probably don’t have the resources to use much traditional marketing such as TV or Print. However, what you do have is (hopefully) time, energy and imagination that can be used for gathering detailed customer data, writing personal emails, and keeping detailed records of each prospect interaction. Make...
August 2011
10 posts
10 tags
What it Takes to Become a Co-Founder
Are you looking for a co-founder to realize a business idea? I believe that quite a few people (myself included) love the idea of working with others in an exciting small business environment, spending their days doing what they love while creating a great organization. To do this you need a great team consisting of committed and highly skilled individuals. How do you get such people aboard your...
6 tags
A Steve Jobs Approach to Business
Now that Steve Jobs has stepped down from his position as CEO of Apple I was reminded of his most famous speech held at Standford in 2005. You probably have seen it already. If you haven’t, please find it here here. It’s one of those speeches which you simply have to see. His message is put forward in three main points which I have all put in a business perspective below. “You...
5 tags
Elevate Your Business To The Next Level
Are you currently running your own business? Have you reached a state where your client base is rather stable? After reaching a certain level of entrepreneurial success you might feel like you need some new input to get things moving faster. It’s easy to get too focused on the daily routine tasks when things are stable. If you feel that you are in that sort of situation you might want to...
5 tags
Eliminating Three Obstacles for Outstanding...
To become a successful entrepreneur you need to be an achiever. You need to invest time, effort and money, and you need to show an outstanding level of execution to make those resources work for you. I have found three main reasons for under-achievement in business contexts. If those are eliminated, you have taken a great step forward towards success. Lack of Knowledge You should know your stuff...
8 tags
This Is a Good Time to Start a Business
Some people look at the current economic climate thinking that this is the worst possible time to start a new business. Fortunately some people think differently. Apparently General Electric, Microsoft and CNN were all founded during times of economic crisis in the U.S. I found a really interesting article in Cincy Magazine about this that you can read here. So why would you consider this a good...
6 tags
Is This a Good Time to Start a Tech Business?
9 tags
Go Virtual - Go Global
Inspired by an article from Inc Magazine about creating a virtual office, I decided to outline the basic steps for making a business go virtual. You can read the original article here. I will here assume that you are in a business providing products or services which can be both created and delivered via the web. However, if you are producing something physical you might still be able to...
7 tags
The Critical Start-Up Skill: Restoring Momentum
Business start-ups, as well as many other organizational projects, might at some stage reach a point where the momentum is lost and there is stagnation in the progress. Deadlines are breached, email responses take longer, you start hearing excuses for why things can’t be done in time and fewer new initiatives are taken. If you are not blessed with an exceptionally self-driven team there is...
5 tags
Do you have an amazing Startup idea?
If so: How do you plan to make it a reality?
8 tags
Personal Performance for Entrepreneurs
As an entrepreneur the performance of your business is highly dependent on your own, personal performance. We will here look into how personal performance can be increased. Let’s just define the term. The level of performance can in most cases be considered a measurement of how achievements compare with set goals. Personal performance might be related to work, exercising, studies,...
July 2011
7 posts
6 tags
Risk Taking and Entrepreneurship
Taking risks is something closely related to entrepreneurship and business start-ups. Below I’ve outlined some basic steps to look at for anyone considering to quit a normal job and start a business. 1. Define Risk According to Wikipedia risk is “the potential that a chosen action or activity (including the choice of inaction) will lead to a loss (an undesirable outcome)”. So...
12 tags
How to Pick a Co-Founder
As discussed in my last post, there are many potential benefits coming from starting a business together with a co-founder. However, to get these benefits you need to pick the right people to work with. I believe some of the most important qualities to look for are: Trust
This is probably the most fundamental part in any sort of collaboration. You need to feel that the people you are working...
11 tags
The Benefits of Finding a Co-Founder for Your...
Do you want to get your own business going? Maybe you are in the start-up process already? Are you doing it alone? If you are, you might want to consider finding a co-founder. There are many potential benefits coming from working with a co-founder rather than on your own. Some of these are:
Team Spirit We are all fundamentally social creatures, and our outstanding ability to communicate and...
10 tags
Changing the World from Your Living Room - The...
As I have started to look more into how to run online-only business projects I just realized that there should be a lot of opportunities for applying the same principles in the non-profit area. You might have considered to go abroad to some less privileged country at some time in your life to teach English, computer skills or any other discipline that there is always a big need for. Fewer people...
7 tags
Running Project Meetings Online
Have you ever wondered why companies still spend huge amounts on flight tickets for executives and company representatives to see clients and employees in geographically remote locations? In today’s online world there are video conferences, screen sharing and cloud computing making distance communication more sophisticated than ever. Still companies spend lots of money for people to meet...
11 tags
Some of the Better (Free) Cloud Based Apps for...
There are quite a few great tools for business project work available online for free. Below I have summarized some of the better ones.
Teamworkpm.net A project management tool that is extremely useful for any start-up project. You can add several projects, and in each project you can create several task lists and assign each task to one or several team members. There is also a calendar...
4 tags
Where to Find Co-Founders
Great businesses are built by teams. We all want to achieve great things, but we will reach there only by the support from others. You can’t pull yourself up to success but you need to be lifted up there by people around you – managers, co-workers, co-founders and customers. Since starting a new business is a rather tough challenge and in most cases requires a lot of willpower and stamina,...
June 2011
7 posts
justkeshav asked: It's not just Idea that matters. The location where it is put into action also matters a lot. What is your opinion on this?
8 tags
YOUR FIRST START-UP MEETING
The first time you run a meeting to explain and sell your business idea to potential partners there are a few topics that should be covered. Below I have put together what I from my experience believe are the most important areas to cover.
Purpose This includes the what and the why that summarizes the business idea. What product or service would you like to offer potential customers? Be as...
5 tags
FINDING CO-FOUNDERS AND ENTREPRENEURS
Below are a three questions for helping you realize where to go and what to look for when trying to find a co-founder for your business.
1. Who am I looking for? You need to define what skills you are looking for. You might be looking for a designer, a programmer, a salesman or a writer. These people might also need to be specialized within their areas. Besides the technical skills you also...
4 tags
Entrepreneurship and Lifestyle
Imagine getting your job done using just a laptop, a headset and a mobile phone. There are plenty of great tools to communicate and collaborate online: teamworkpm.net, dropbox.com, Skype, Google groups and many others. As long as your tasks can be performed all online, you can spend your time on a beach in Spain, learning a new language in Asia or doing horse riding on Iceland. A rather common...
5 tags
Becoming an Entrepreneur at Work
A few years ago I was working in the financial industry selling financial services to small and average sized stock companies. One thing I learned during that period I never forgot: A great salesman is always a great salesman, no matter if he is at work or not. Being truly outstanding in any craft requires passion and authenticity. You can’t be a great salesman 40 hours per week and be the...
6 tags
Corporate Leaders vs. Entrepreneurs
“Ultimately, the best test of any product is to go to your target market and pretend like it’s a real business. You’ll find out soon enough if it is or not.”
The above is taken from How Great Entrepreneurs Think, a very interesting article about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial attitudes: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110201/how-great-entrepreneurs-think.html
They...
5 tags
Looking for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Have you ever thought about starting your own business? Have you tried to find people who are interested in taking part in such a project? Have you managed to keep things going until the envisioned product is ready to be sold?
Finding suitable people for a business project is not easy. I have been involved in a few smaller entrepreneurial projects myself and what I have found to be the number...
