Have you ever know a lost entrepreneur. Someone who had once had a ton of ambition and made short work of success who one day just kind of went into a different mode? Who are Entrepreneurs and how do you become a lost entrepreneur?

Is there an entrepreneur definition? What does it mean to be an entrepreneurs, a capitalist,an industrialist? What does it mean? Are you a business man or business woman? Is there a difference? Is an entrepreneur an artist? Is an entrepreneur free? What are the functions and the activities of entrepreneur? When I think of an entrepreneur I think of a warrior for free enterprise. Does free enterprise exist as an entity or is free enterprise the rooster tail of the entrepreneurial mind. Which is cause and which is effect? How is it that, what seems like a mess to some, seems to an entrepreneur, a business opportunity?

What is an Entrepreneur?

According to entrepreneur start up magazines I have read there are many new home business ideas and entrepreneurs. Business consulting services, profit consulting entrepreneurial opportunities, there are home based business entrepreneurs who use the internet, and countless other names, labels, and boxes that we are putting these spirited startups in today. Apparently there is no certain education needed to be an entrepreneur.

I have an uncle who is an outgoing Christian entrepreneur. The SBA and their definition or, characteristics of an entrepreneur are entertaining. I see a well formed and defined box when I read there researched reality. My view of the entrepreneur is biased to my own experience, I think that entitles me to say my knowledge of being an entrepreneur is thus and so.

An Entrepreneurial Moment

I walked down a sidewalk on a sunny day in 1997, I took a deep breath and said with my mind and my breath and my posture OK this is it I am doing this. I am in business. My life at the time was an unorganized mess. I had floundered, flailed, and flopped. That very day, with that very breath like an inward sigh, I seemly inhaled a spirit of independent empowerment. I will do this. From that point I was an entrepreneur. Each morning I got up and did whatever made sense. I put business cards anywhere I saw a thumbtack, crevice or crack that would secure my proud offering.

An older man called me one day and mentioned he found a card of mine; we had a brief conversation and decided we may as well meet. I secured my first contract and was on my way. The first project I took was not exactly an entrepreneurs dream situation and it certainly was not mine. It was a nasty job. It was messy and it was tough. I did not have a lot of competition. A job no one else wanted. That was my target market in the beginning.

Entrepreneurs reading this may recall first realizing what their target market was. It felt like I had found a secret. I was what I like to refer to as a real entrepreneur. I had one year of college, I was not, by far, a business man wise in wealth. I made a decision I would be free and then I stepped into my decision and a new life lay before me. My target market continued to evolve as my entrepreneurial awareness grew more acute.

Entrepreneurial Adventure

In seven short years that business grew from a decision and literally, no contacts, to a multimillion dollar enterprise that employed over thirty people and was a branded force to be reckoned with in the industry. I grew up in that business. It taught me who I was and who I was not. It taught me about the motives and motivations of a young man. I learned truths that previously were totally hidden to me. Entrepreneurial Insight I suppose.

I learned about people and why they did what they did. I learned about business structure and business models and the gross failings of each. I believe that once a person lives in the realm of the entrepreneur life takes on a whole different meaning. I could suddenly relate with the pioneers, the revolutionaries, the leaders. I read books about Lincoln , and power and getting along with others. I read about people like me. I did not know at the time they were like me and how we were brothers in bravery. I was humbled by all the information recorded by those brave souls who experience their own sunny sidewalk day and that breath that filled the sail of there entrepreneurial spirit.

Joe Crawford has been an entrepreneur since his early twenties. After building a 2.5 million dollar 30+ employee traditional business he sought out a business industry, career, or business model that would provide him the results HE wanted. If being “successful” is old news & you want the specific results of a Solid Six Figure Income in the next 6-12 months WHILE building a residual walkaway income stream over time…

… then come evaluate an information age business opportunity that you can use to do just that. Everything is in place and it is absolutely free to evaluate the business details. Make it a Great Year! You Deserve It!

Author: Joe Crawford
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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What are the best small business opportunities? I could just throw a list of opportunities at you and tell you that I had thoroughly researched the topic and found that these, the ones I’ve listed for you here, are hands down the best small business opportunities out there. Some of you might say “great, I’ll choose one of these”. The more astute reader would be inclined to say “oh yeah, the best how, or according to who”?

No one opportunity is the best for everyone reading this. We all have our own priorities and preferences to consider. Instead of trying to give you a “top ten list” of the best small business opportunities, I would rather give you a list of criteria to consider when choosing an opportunity. That way I’m teaching you how to compare all of the possibilities you might run into instead of just pushing you in a direction that might work well for me and poorly for you.

So here’s my list of “things to consider before choosing a small business opportunity”:

* How Much Money Can I Make Doing This – We all knew this one had to be here, and it really doesn’t require much of an introduction. I will say that many people never get beyond this one criteria when choosing a business for themselves. Many of those people fail because of one of the other criteria on this list.

* How Long Will It Take To Start Making Money – This is sort of a partner to the first one, but one that is often overlooked by those who are too focused on the “how much” and not enough focused on the rest of this list. If you choose the one that pays the best but you go broke while you’re waiting for the torrent of money to begin, that’s not such a great deal.

* How Much Money Will I Need To Spend To Get It Started – This is another one that takes a surprising number of people by surprise. People who haven’t done it before tend to think of owning a business as a purely income centric thing. Almost all business require some startup money, but the amount varies widely from one business to the next.

* What Sort Of Red Tape Is Involved – Another one that catches many a novice entrepreneur by surprise. We live in a very heavily regulated society. Gone are the days when good intentions are the only requirement for permission. The government regulates almost everything, and business is certainly no exception. These regulations are seldom intended to be for the greater public good. Most of it is the result of corrupt politicians making life better for their business partners and the rest is primarily invented as yet another means of taxing the public. Some of the best business opportunities are ruined by excessive regulation.

* Will I Be Swamped With Paperwork – Many small business persons fall victim to this problem. They develop a business that more or less requires several forms of record keeping and billing and bill collection and payroll and taxes of every variety. It is easy for the small business person to get swamped by all of this “busy work” and have very little time to devote to further developing their business.

* Will I Have To Deal With Employees – Talk about red tape and paperwork! It is almost true that a small business person can never hire just one employee, because that one employee will require a whole other person just to deal with all of the overhead that having employees brings with it. Add to that things like employee turn-over and training, personnel problems like drug use and no-shows, employee theft. Many small business owners work themselves to death just to avoid all this.

* Does It Have Unrealistic Time Requirements – If you’re a late sleeper or somebody looking to improve their free time situation by starting a small business of your own, you need to thoroughly research your choices on this one. Maybe you’re thinking “day trading”, but you live on the West Coast. The markets open at 6:30am, and you need to be bright eyed and bushy tailed before they open. Maybe the business you were thinking of requires your presence to deal with customer orders. Will you ever allow yourself the luxury of being away from the business and missing orders?

* Does It Require Me To Be Always In One Place – Whether your idea involves raising animals that need to be fed every day, or the use of machinery that is too large to take with you, you need to consider what kind of a toll it will take on you to be always anchored to one spot and unable to take a few days off and go somewhere.

* Can I Get Out Of The Business Easily – People change and their interests change. What seems like a fascinating area to work in today may seem like pure torture after you do it 60 hours a week for a few years. Is this a business that has some sale potential once established? Many small businesses are so dependent upon the skills of the owner that they are difficult or impossible to sell. After you put so much effort into building a business, it is hard to just walk away from it without some compensation.

* Will The Income It Generates Always Be Tied To How Much Time I Spend Doing It – Few people would immediately think of song writing or writing books as a business. Usually you first think of such things as artistic _expression rather than a business. But, those two activities do earn money, and they have an interesting property that would be very welcome in a small business. Residuals, or getting money for the same bit of work over and over again. Residual income is one of the main things you should aspire to get from a small business. Without that, it tends to be just another job, but with a lot more risk and a lot more stress. You want to build yourself a perpetual money machine, that keeps on spinning after you stop turning the crank.

Well, there you have it, ten criteria you can use to compare any small business opportunity you come across with others you have considered. This list will go a long way towards narrowing down the field when you are choosing a small business opportunity. In fact, some people complain that there is nothing left after they apply this list to the ideas they’ve been working on.

One reason that the Internet has created such a big boom in the small business world is that many of the best small business opportunities (according to an analysis against my list) are among the most common types of Internet businesses.

Take a website business for example: Huge income potential if you do it right, almost no startup costs, no regulation (except for fraudulent activities), no paperwork or employees required, work whenever you want, grab your laptop and go, good sale of business potential, and among the best businesses there are for residual income.

About the only one of the criteria above that this one fails on is the startup time. It will often take several months to a year to get a new website up to speed and generating lots of traffic and income. Some of the other Internet businesses don’t suffer from this downside, but do have other transgressions against my criteria. All in all though, as a class of businesses, you just can’t do any better than an internet business when using the criteria I’ve set forth above.

Scott J. Patterson is a self-proclaimed Dunce, yet last month he earned $12,124 from one of his online businesses. To find out how YOU can do the same, download his free ebook- The Secret Guide to Home Businesses: http://www.duncemoney.com/wbarticle.html

Author: Scott Patterson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Small business marketing is all about determining the needs of your target market and then providing solutions to meet those needs.

These 7 steps are aimed at entrepreneurs starting a small business and those who want to create a successful small business marketing plan for an existing business.
Most small business promotions focus on how great their products and services are. Instead, you should educate your target market consistently and start building a relationship that will establish your credibility and trust. It is important to develop a marketing mindset. “Think Marketing” your products and services all of the time. It is very important to consistently market your products and services. Don’t fall into the trap of stop and go marketing. Some small business owners only market when sales are down.

You can’t have a successful small business without having a successful small business marketing plan. Effective small business marketing is the way to growth and profits

If you’re a small business owner or you want to know how to start a small business in the future, this simple 7-step plan will help you understand your business and your target market.

How to Start a Small Business Marketing Plan: 7 Steps
Begin the process by answering these questions:

1) Who — Who specifically is your target market? Who is your ideal client? What research can you do to find out more about your target market?

2) What — What products and services do your ideal clients want and need? What does your product and service do for your ideal client? What problems does your product solve for your customer? What are the solutions that your ideal client is looking for? What is your area of specialty that will differentiate you in the marketplace? What are the industry trends? What type of message will your ideal client likely respond to? What are you ultimately selling? For example: Are you selling eye glasses or are you selling vision? What is your unique mix of products and services? What is your pricing strategy?

3) Where — Where is your ideal client? Where is your customer located geographically? Where will you position yourself so they can easily find you? Where are the best places to get your marketing message to them? Will you speak to groups, hold seminars, or write a blog, newsletters or articles?
4) When — How frequently does your target market need to hear your marketing message? When are they most likely to buy your products and services?

5) Why — Why are you in business? Why do customers or clients buy from you? Why should they choose your product or service over your competition?

6) How — How does your customer buy your product or service? How are you going to reach potential buyers for your services and products? How will you communicate your marketing message? How will you provide customers or clients with the information they need to make their buying decision?

7) Marketing Mindset – Practice mastering a Marketing Mindset and you will be on the path to a profitable small business.

With these 7 steps, you can take action towards starting a small business marketing plan that targets new customers. “Marketing is about testing and evaluating your return on investment. But it’s primarily about helping people get what they want.” Master these small business marketing steps and you will be on the path to more profit and success as a business owner.

Robert Moment is a small business coach and the author of It Only Takes a Moment to Score and the soon to be published Invisible Profits: The Power of Exceptional Customer Service”. Robert specializes in teaching entrepreneurs how to start a small business that profits and grows. Visit http://www.howtostartyoursmallbusiness.com and sign-up for your FREE Small Business Coaching 7 day e-course titled, Turn Passion into Profit: Small Business Startup.

Author: Robert Moment
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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There is so much lip service paid to customer service that even those businesses that provide lousy customer service begin believing their own hype about how the customer comes first. The fact is that most businesses do a very poor job of serving their customers. Many have simply fooled themselves into thinking that they are doing a wonderful job of providing outstanding service. Avoid being one of those businesses.

Nothing short of outstanding customer service should be acceptable in any business. But virtually every day we run into examples of customer service that ranges from pitiful to barely acceptable. Rarely do we encounter truly outstanding service.

Outstanding customer service does just that….it stands out. The fact that most businesses are clueless when it comes to instilling a customer service culture that accepts nothing short of outstanding represents opportunity for your business. If you can master the art of serving the customer, you have the opportunity to differentiate your company, or stand out, from your competition and gain a competitive advantage.

Outstanding customer service requires several things:

  1) a sincere and powerful commitment to serving customers and prospective customers at the highest possible level each and every time,

  2) excellent people,

  3) stringent expectations and policies regarding how customers are served along with a high level of accountability for enforcing those expectations and policies and

  4) a discipline about serving customers consistently in manner that not only meets customer expectations, but often exceeds them.

Achieving outstanding customer service means hard work and attention to detail as well.

In order to deliver outstanding customer service consistently, each and every facet of your business must be “fine tuned”. Because each part of a business is interconnected, each has the ability to create either favorable or unfavorable impressions with customers. For example, a customer might order a product and have a great experience placing the order and receiving it on time. But they discover a billing error and deal with accounts receivable to clear it up. In doing so, the customer encounters a rude employee that is less than helpful. All of the hard work to please the customer in ordering and shipping the product is wiped out by another area of the company. We emphasize that all employees should fully understand what their roles are in providing outstanding customer service. And all employees must be held accountable for delivering it.

Outstanding customer service must become a way of life for your employees. It must be focused on and become almost a mantra with employees. They should have some healthy fear about delivering anything less than outstanding service. Hiring employees that are capable of delivering outstanding customer service is critical to your efforts. Some people simply cannot deliver outstanding service consistently. And the key here is consistency.

Once excellent employees are in place, they must be trained and retrained continuously. They must be evaluated based on, among other things, their ability to deliver outstanding customer service to both internal and external customers. An employee having a bad day is unacceptable as an excuse for delivering less than outstanding customer service. Employees must be “on” every hour of every day that they are on the job. You can’t expect anything less. Customers don’t care that an employee is having personal problems or isn’t feeling well. They want to be served at a high level.

The success of your business is directly tied to how well customers are served. Remember that your focus should be on building value in your business. One way of doing so is to increase your customer base over time. Delivering outstanding customer service will help ensure that your base of customers does increase rather than deteriorate.

Your company should have a well conceived customer service program in place. This program clearly defines how the company will hire, how and when it will train employees in customer service and it documents procedures and clearly delineates company customer service policies. It also outlines how employees will be evaluated and how customer satisfaction will be measured. If there are incentive plans based on delivering outstanding customer service, those should be detailed in the program as well. In short, outstanding customer service won’t happen without a well conceived and well managed approach to making it happen.

ReviewSNAP, a Web-based performance management company, prides itself on customer service and does so by following it’s highly detailed program.

Take the opportunity that exists for your company to truly stand out from your competition by delivering customer service that is clearly different and better. It will make a significant difference in how customers perceive your business and what they tell others about it.

Author: Chris Arringdale
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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History has shown that many companies think of customer service as a reactionary response to a customer issue/problem. In the past and still in present day Customer Service focuses on how to deal with customer complaints/issues after the customer is already unhappy about an issue. This is like closing the barn door after the horses got out.

Anyone who is in customer service knows that dealing with unhappy customers all day long makes for a very long day. If this happens day after day the problems for the company grow exponentially. A customer that has had service issues multiple times then turns into a very unhappy customer who may turn to your competitor…costing your company revenue and hurting your reputation. In addition, it burns out your customer service staff quickly. Customer service positions are notorious for high turn over rates. If your company has a reactionary customer service approach it results in a negative environment that substantially accelerates turn over rates. This in turn causes significant loss of revenue due to the costs of replacing staff constantly and the time and resources taken to train new staff. Keeping customer service staff turnover down is challenging to every company. Many companies just see it as a headache they have to accept and even consider it as a cost of doing business.

But what if you could reduce customer complaints, reduce staff turn over, increase revenue (not decrease) and save company resources…just by developing a Proactive Service Approach?

In this day and age there is so much competition that it is very hard to set yourself apart from your competitors. A recent article in USA Today stated that a survey of CEO’s pointed out that because so many companies offer the same products and services for similar prices, that customer service is the best way to set your self apart from your competition. A good way to differentiate your company is to create a customer service program that is Proactively focused.
Here are some examples of Proactive approaches you can put in place:

1) Anticipate your Customers Issues and/or Needs:
Have your staff compile a list of possible and/or probable questions, concerns and issues your clients might have. Instead of coming up with solutions for when the customers call have your team meet on a regular basis to try and identify new issues that might pop up and how to resolve them before the customer ever sees them.

2) Constant/Consistent Communication:
Have your staff regularly call your customer to show sincere interest in taking care of them, while at the same time possibly catching issues before they have magnified in the client’s eyes. Good communication can catch issues before they do more damage.

3) Apologize Immediately:
Any time a customer says or shows that they are unhappy about an issue…apologize immediately. This does not mean to take full responsibility before you know it is your company’s fault. It could be another vendor’s or the customer’s mistake. This means acknowledging their frustration by saying “I’m sorry this issue has caused you frustration and we will do everything we can to rectify the issue.” Even if it’s your fault or another vendor’s, just the fact that you are immediately trying to acknowledge how it is affecting them will make them feel like you are truly a partner and care about their satisfaction. It is truly amazing how many companies have not taught their staff the Golden Rule of apologizing immediately. Apologizing immediately goes a long way in diffusing the powder keg that is an unhappy customer.

4) Sometimes you have to say “No”:
Some projects or customers are just too big. Not too many sales people or owners want to say no to any work. But if the job is too big you won’t be able to serve them well and you will reduce resources for other clients. It is very tempting to take on additional work that can produce more revenue, especially when you are a young company and/or struggling. But if you take on work you cannot handle you will do more harm than good, in the long run.

5) Reward Staff for Great Service:
Reward them quickly and before they ask for appreciation. Customer service is a very stressful job some times. Long-term exposure to unhappy customers can be very debilitating to an employee. So managers should proactively reward staff that goes above and beyond. Managers should also keep a close eye on employees that are starting to show signs of strain. Proactively plan many breaks during the day. Also have light-hearted distractions that can make them feel removed from the stress of dealing with unhappy customers.

6) Empower your Staff:
Give staff the authority to make decisions before they even deal with customers. Give them empowerment to make judgments the first time they are hearing of an issue with customers. Try to make sure that the staff does not have to delay complaint resolutions, as much as possible, by avoiding pass-offs to higher ups for authorization to fix the customer’s issues. Pass-offs add fuel to fuming customers. The greatest customer service stories come from companies like Nordstrom’s who give their employees complete autonomy to make a customer happy.

7) Compensate your Staff Based on Service Level:
Staff should know that the level of service they provide your customers would directly affect their compensation. Give them incentive to provide the best service they can. Conversely, they should understand that poor service couldn’t only affect their compensation but their job as well.

Hire the Right People and Instill the Right Message:
Everything starts with the right people! If you hire someone who does not relate well to others and is lacking interpersonal skills, you have already created a recipe for failure. If you need to, administer personality assessments to get a stronger understanding of their true ability and willingness to serve others. In addition, when you hire anyone that will have regular contact with customers they must understand how important it is for them to be customer focused. “Customer First” should be the company’s culture.

9) Be Prepared:
If it’s too late to be proactive and a customer is already dissatisfied, make sure to have as much information about that client before you talk to them. Obviously you want to get their issue resolved as fast as possible but make sure your staff has all files and history on the client, before dealing with their issue. Once you have all the information you can about the client and their issue…hit fast and hit hard. Get the pain over with.

10) Proactive Surveys:
Routinely send out surveys to your customers to gauge their overall opinion of the service. Constantly and proactively monitor how they view the relationship with your company.

I once worked with a technology company and we implemented a Proactive Customer Service Policy. In 1 ½ years time we reduced customer complaints 70%; reduced incoming calls from customers about 66%; and reduced staff man-hours from an average of 50-55 hours / week to an average of 40 hours / week. The company became the industry leader, because we consciously went to the customers instead of waiting for them to come to us.

If a company implements a proactive approach it does not guarantee satisfied customers, but it can significantly reduce customer issues and demonstrate to your customers that you are customer focused. When customers see that you are focused on their satisfaction they will have a much more positive view of their relationship or “partnership” with your organization. In turn, they may also be more loyal to you versus your competitor and may be more apt to give a positive review of your company. That can also lead to giving your company the benefit of the doubt, when an issue does arise. A positive past is the best way to build a positive future!

Remember, proactive customer service may be the turning point that your company needs to get to the next level.

“Transforming Lives to Transform Businesses”

At Development Effects we provide Business, Personal and Professional Coaching services to executives, entrepreneurs, professionals. We also provide Business Consulting to whole business enterprises. We help move them to the next level by partnering with them to facilitate and accelerate Intentional Development via Transformation…Change!

Dan Roberts
President/CEO
Development Effects
Business, Personal & Executive Coach, Business Consultant
330-620-3044
droberts@developmenteffects.com
http://www.developmenteffects.com

Author: Dan T Roberts
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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