The
Right Stuff..
Does everyone have the
"right stuff" to be an entrepreneur? The results are in and the answer
is no. While many new businesses start each year - many also fail,
and their products and services fall to the wayside never to be resurrected.
Even a perfected business
plan and all the money necessary to start a business does not guarantee
success.
Then what does it take
for a successful journey into the uncertain world of owning your own
business?
Skills and Strategies
Help...
The focus of the previous
seminars have been to offer guidance and assistance in developing
the needed skills for owning a business. Writing a business plan,
financing, hiring employees and marketing are some of the topics which
have been covered. Strategies for emerging markets and types of businesses
which have been discussed and emerging trends have been uncovered.
While all of these strategies
and skills are important for the entrepreneur, it still may not be
enough to ensure success. The entrepreneur himself/herself remains
one of the most crucial assets to a business.
Isn't It Luck?
An outside observer of
successful entrepreneurs might mistake their accomplishments for "luck"
or some sort of Midas gold touch. But closer study shows that these
people possess a unique drive and aptitude that appears unyielding
to the inevitable twists and turns of simple luck. An insatiable spirit
for innovation and learning. A tireless ability to create, develop
and sell. This "entrepreneurial spirit", when combined with the skills
and knowledge of running a business, is the potent ingredient which
turns entrepreneurial dreams into business realities.
Starting From Where
You Are...
A merger of health care
facilities caused Sue DeClerque to lose her management job. Out of
a need to support herself and her two children, Suzanne convinced
the new merged organizations to contract with her to pick up the overflow
of medical transcription work on a part-time basis. She hardly saw
herself as an entrepreneur at that time. "I was just going to do this
until I could get a regular job," she states. Suzanne started without
any savings in the bank and no available credit. Suzanne took that
initial part-time contract, which generated $400 per month, and turned
it into a thriving business with contracts across the region, generating
more than a million dollars annually.
Sue's entrepreneurial success
story didn't happen overnight and wasn't without problems. But her
drive and determination, her entrepreneurial spirit, gave her the
fortitude to overcome the odds and turn them in her favor.
The Phenomenon of the
Entrepreneurial Spirit...
The words Webster used
to define phenomenon are:
"aspect known through
the senses"
"a fact of scientific
interest which defies scientific description or explanation"
"exceptional"
"rare"
"unusual"
And that best describes
it. The entrepreneurial spirit is truly a phenomenon. Through the
years of working with, observing and being an entrepreneur, it is
clear, that the best of them possess a spirit that is rare, unusual
and exceptional. How else can you explain success that often defies
logic? A drive that beats the odds? A deep passion that can overcome
obstacles that would stop the ordinary person in their tracks?
If it is this entrepreneurial
spirit that makes business plans work and products sell, then what
is it made of and how can we get it?
Next
Chapter...
