I have seen several promising entrepreneurs, who just disappeared into the oblivion. They had a great idea, but they did not have a great plan! A right start paves the way for success. As a novice, you will surely tend to make mistakes, but it will be better if you avoid them!

Business Start-up Mistakes to Avoid

You are smart if you learn from your mistakes, you are smarter if you learn from others’ mistakes.

Mistakes are inevitable, and experience is the best teacher, but as they say, prevention is better than cure, so life would be easier for you, if you do not commit the following mistakes:

Not Evaluating Your Idea

Almost everyone who comes up with an idea thinks that he has the best idea in the world, but they seldom realize that there are hundreds of business ventures that have implemented better ideas than them. So, I advise you to carry out research, and evaluate your business idea before you proceed.

Inadequate Planning

Your dream to become number 1 in the market, will never become a reality if you do not plan well. I agree that planning is time-consuming, but it plays an instrumental role in the growth of the company. Your business plan should not be rigid, it should be able to adapt to the changing trends of the market.

Wrong Business Structure

A wrong business structure can be a major cause of concern. Have intense deliberations with your accountant and your attorney, before you adopt any business structure (general partnership, sole proprietorship, liability partnership, etc.). See that you have the best business structure for your enterprise.

Frittering Money Away

People tend to get carried away, and they spend money on the things, which are not really necessary for their business. You should identify the essentials (every business has a different set of essentials), and focus on them. When you start making profit, you can think of spending on the subsidiary things.

Hiring the Wrong People

Taylorism (scientific management) advocates that you should have the right person for the right job. If you hire the wrong people, then there will be lack of efficiency! If you think of hiring your friend as the manager of your company, just on the basis of emotional attachment, it would affect your business negatively. So, make sure that you hire skilled people, who specialize in the assigned task.

Poor Marketing

Marketing stimulates growth by attracting clients. If you do not have a good marketing strategy, then your chances of progress are feeble. Marketing is crucial during the start-up phase, but you should not stop marketing once you are established. Stand out among your competitors, use different platforms to promote your enterprise, and in the contemporary times, you must have a website for your company.

Relying on Pretense

Wannabe business magnates often try to project a false image, in order to acquire clients. If you hide behind pretense, then it will surely backlash one day. I advise you to be true to your clients, and grow on your merits, rather than relying on such tactics.

Ignoring Legal and Financial Issues

A prime reason for the ebb of many business endeavors was disregarding the legal and financial issues that the company was facing. I advise you to find solutions to any issues (financial or legal) at the earliest.

So, now that you know the mistakes to avoid while starting a new business, make sure that you do not commit them. Once you have a good start, see that you avoid mistakes while running the business. If you are determined, you will surely be successful. Best of luck!

By Elizabeth Bennett

This entry was posted on November 18, 2012, in Business. Bookmark the permalink.

Key Characteristics of Business Entrepreneurs

Brindley identified five main characteristics usually present in entrepreneurs which include the following: hard-working, high levels of motivation or drive, innovative and creative, able to take risks, resilient and confident in their own ability. Most entrepreneurs push themselves to work incredibly long and often antisocial hours with sheer determination and resilience to achieve their goals. In areas where others may have given up due to setbacks and misfortunes, it is the entrepreneur who is likely to keep persevering in order to overcome any difficulties.

There are many examples of present day entrepreneurs including the likes of Sir Richard Branson, Lord Alan Sugar, Simon Cowell, Duncan Bannatyne and possibly the most famous of all, Bill Gates.

What Motivates Business Entrepreneurs?

Clearly, a major source of motivation for entrepreneurs and indeed most if not all workers if that of gaining financial rewards or benefits as a result of their hard work. However, it is not profit alone that is the sole source of motivation as several other motives are also recognised to play a part. Additional motives include the chance to be self-employed and thus not have to take any orders from those in senior position to oneself or have to work as set number of hours within certain times during the week. Many entrepreneurs are highly motivated to succeed in a chosen area if it is something that they have always enjoyed such as a creative passions, for example in writing a book or designing clothing ranges.

The Role of the Entrepreneur in Business

According to Brindley, there are several important roles which entrepreneurs have within business including to fill in market gaps such as the creation of successful social networking sites like Bebo, Facebook and MySpace as well as in the development of new products such as the Blackberry, I-Pod and I-Phone. Entrepreneurs also have an important part to play in encouraging and motivating young people to work hard at school, college or university and believe in their dreams and ambitions.

The UK government has recognised that enterprise if something worthwhile in relation to the creation of jobs and opportunities for those that would otherwise possibly have become demotivated and ended up not realising their full potential. As such, there are now a whole range of incentives for entrepreneurs including grants, subsidies and tax allowance.

As highlighted above, key characteristics of entrepreneurs include self-motivation, creativity, hard-working, risk taking, self-confidence and resilience. Motivation sources for entrepreneurs involve profit, ethical issues, values and the opportunity to work for oneself.

This was written by Julia Smith  http://www.4bn.co.uk/u/JuliaSmith

Do you remember when you were younger, the times before phones, email or instant messaging? Before you could set detailed reminders on your phone or sync all your calenders so you never miss an appointment? How did we remember anything? Notes. Notes to ourselves, notes to our families, nothing more than a little scrap piece of paper to say “Don’t forget to feed the dog” or “Dentist appointment Monday at 11”. And the pinboard organised these. Kept them in one place so they wouldn’t get lost and so appointments could be easily checked. Maybe not as efficient as a smart phone, but it definitely did its job.

But we don’t need it so much anymore. Not in the physical sense anyway. We have phones and tablets and computers that can do all our organising and do all the reminding. But, like everything else, the Pin board has moved to the web in the form of Pinterest.com. And, judging from the success of the website, pin boards have never been so popular.

So what exactly is Pinterest? Well it’s a virtual pin board. A site where people can pin pictures or videos that they see on the internet, they can be categorised and kept together. A pin board can be anything from favourite books to wish lists to favourite sports teams. Any picture can be pinned. If you see something someone else has pinned, you can repin it to your own board and keep it with your items. It’s all about the visual and it’s all about sharing.

Let’s talk business. First off some industries may think they can’t ‘be visual’, especially service industries. But you can, you just have to think outside the box. Some companies are pinning ‘how to guides’ for their products or info graphics. While their product may not make the prettiest picture, the information can be given and presented visually.

Pinterest is also great for referrals. Every picture links back to the website it came from, so put the picture on your site first, and then pin it from there. And don’t forget to add your URL to the description box, people can see where it came from. At the moment, Pinterest drives more referral traffic than LinkedIn, Google+ and Youtube combined. Users spend an average of 72 minutes browsing pins and using the site, to put that into perspective Facebook users spend an average of 45 minutes on the site. And Pinterest is open; boards are available to everybody from the home page, if you put in the price of a product, you will also feature on the gifts page so double the exposure for your brand.

Pin boards always served us well, they kept all the important notes and reminders we needed before technology took over. But the pin board is making its come back online with thanks to Pinterest!

Networking, we have been doing it since we were children, from the moment we set foot into the playground (and probably long before) we socialise, we get to know people, build relationships. We grow up; we continue to make new friends, some close, some not but our social circle grows. As human beings relationships are vital, we are social creatures and we need them for happiness, and well survival, life in business is no different. No matter what industry you’re in, no matter what sector, networking can grow your business, create new customers, and bring in more money. Despite the new media age and the vast improvements in technology, businesses still need good old fashioned word-of-mouth. To get that, you need to know people and people need to know you; they need to know your business. Thats why BNI (Business Networking International) is such an important organisation, it helps you network and gives you access to people in a range of industries who you otherwise may never have had the chance to meet.

I recently attended by first BNI chapter, each meeting is called a chapter; I had the pleasure of visiting the Leeside chapter here in Cork., I was brought along as visitor and honestly, I didn’t really know what to expect. The meetings start at 7am, so it doesn’t affect your working day. It begins with an open networking session, with coffee and breakfast. So I went in, nervous, I had the ‘first day of a new school’ feeling. But within five minutes, I was chatting to people, getting to know them and what they do. I was networking. The great thing about these chapters is that they only allow one person from each industry to attend, so if you’re an architect, then you’re the only architect there, so referrals go to you and you alone.

After the open networking session, the meeting got underway. It was 60 second speech time. As I waited for my turn, I listened intently to the other speeches and got used to the set-up. What amazed me was that attention never waned, despite the fact that it was early morning, the other members were enthusiastic, and they listened to each other, made notes and seemed so eager to help each other out. The 60 second speech, while brief, allows individuals to spread their message, to communicate it to a room of (in this case anyway) around 20 people. These people then know your business, they know what it is you want or need and hopefully, will be able to refer business to you in the coming week. Then, in turn, you refer business back to them. The business cards of all members are passed around, you take one of each, you keep it with you and if you get the chance you pass it on to someone you may know.

It’s a relatively simple idea, but the success of BNI is incredible. It has chapters all over the world. In Ireland and the UK there are over 611 chapters, in 2011 referrals from these amounted to around €332 million. Times are tough, cash isn’t flowing as steadily as it once was, but this shows the power of relationships and how beneficial referrals can be. But to me, this isn’t just about cash flow. You get to meet new people, expand your social horizons, get presentations skills, find new opportunities, and breakfast is thrown in!

I was brought in as a visitor and so far I have attended two chapter meetings (and hopefully a few more!), my purse is bulging with business cards. I started off nervous, and came away excited. Excited about the possibilities, the relationships and the new people I had met. If you have never thought about BNI before then start now, start growing your business by growing your friendships.

Click here to find out more information about BNI

The world is changing. We are going through a revolution, a social revolution. Boundaries are breaking, space and time differences are becoming things of the past and all thanks to the internet. We no longer have to wait weeks for post, talking to someone in the States can be instant- 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We can connect and share with millions of people at the click of a button. And so, to be a part of this exciting new world, we (Acorn Business Centre) must change with it.
Since 2003 we have been operating under the name ‘Acorn Business Campus’ a name that has served us well, but now in 2012 it’s time for a change, it’s time to grow. We wanted something that represents us, our business and (most importantly) our clients. And so from May 2012, we will be known as Acorn Business Centre. While our old name served us well, we are changing and so our name had to change with us! It’s a small change that (we hope) represents our growth as a business.
Of course we are not the only business to decide on a name change. When Google was first created in 1996 in was called backrub, it was then changed to Google in 1998. Could you imagine saying ‘Wait a minute while I ‘backrub’ that? And there’s many, many more. Yahoo was once known as ‘Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web’, Pepsi was first registered as ‘Brad’s Drink’, the list goes on. Changing a business name is nearly as old as business itself! You have to adapt to trends and changes. Words change, clients change, and now we’re changing too.
Changing our name was only one part; we needed a new identity to suit our new name, a new logo and a new website. We want our online brand to be fresh, engaging and social. Basically we needed a place to reflect how we are offline. This brings us here, to Acorn Business Centre’s new online home. A place where we hope to show off our personality and create new relationships!
So now you have found our new home, please come in and take a look around. And feel free to leave a comment, give us some feedback (good, bad or terrible we want to hear it all!)

Welcome to Acorn Business Blog, this is our guide to getting started in business. This  post is all about location how to find and it and what to do with it. Your office will be your base. It will be your home. It will be where you spend most of your working week. So let us guide you through getting it right.

You’ve thought of an idea, an idea which you (and we) hope will make you millions some day, you’ve registered your business name, sorted all the paper work and you’ve got your start up capital. So what now? This can be a daunting time for any start up business. But fear not there is plenty of help available. Take a minute. Google ‘setting up a business’ and you will literally get thousands of search results.

So where is your business going to operate from? Your business premises and what type of base you need will be crucial. Whether it’s an office or a retail space you require location is everything these days. And you need to think of your customers; will they need parking, will they need meeting rooms, training rooms or just a canteen with some coffee. At the end of the day, this is the home of your company and it will say a lot about you and your business.

Research, research, research. Look at locations; how accessible is the area? Is it well known? What’s the traffic like?  And most importantly, what other businesses are in the area?  Try making a list of all the things you will need, put them in order of importance and tick them off as you go. You might have to compromise, but make sure you keep the important parts! Always try bargaining, maybe it won’t get you very far and maybe it will, but you have to at least try. Try save your money in anyway you can, capital is vital at this stage, shop around, see can you source some second hand office furniture or supplies. Your home is important, but it doesn’t have to be expensive!

Getting started can be tough, especially in today’s economy, once you have found the perfect location, signed the necessary paperwork you can get started on getting your clients in the door.

Want to get your brand online? What to choose; Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, WordPress, Blogger the list goes on and on. So when new sites pop up (which they, do all the time) it’s hard to know if it’s worth time setting it up, I mean how do you know if your business will actually benefit from a new platform? that was until LinkedIn joined the list.

LinkedIn is a social networking site for companies and professionals, at least that’s the best way I have to explain it. LinkedIn’s mission is to “is to connect the world’s professionals to enable them to be more productive and successful…to help you, your connections, and millions of other professionals meet, exchange ideas, learn, make deals, find opportunities or employees, work, and make decisions in a network of trusted relationships and groups” Sounds pretty good right? LinkedIn has been growing steadily since it was founded in Reid Hoffman’s living room back in 2002.

In the month after the launch (5th May 2003), LinkedIn had already gained 4,500 members. Now, almost 10 years later, LinkedIn has more than 150 million members worldwide.  If you’re looking to do some networking, or a background search on future employees or just to find some job opportunities, then you have pretty good odds with LinkedIn. Let’s put this into Irish numbers, we have about 600,000 accounts, and you can bet that that figure will rise, (and significantly) in 2012. In the UK, there are more than 9 million members. So that’s more than 9.5 million contacts available to you or your business at the click of button, not bad right?

Right, so 150+ million potential clients, but what do with your LinkedIn?  How can you actually develop your brand through the site? Well its straightforward, once your signed into your account (or the account you want to use to set it up) go to the ‘Companies’ tab on the top of the page and then go the left hand corner and click ‘Add New’. Enter your company information and your good to go. Remember this is public. Anybody who searches for your site can access this so write wisely (but it can be updated at any time you want so no need to stress too much).

Once your company profile is up and running, a company overview and the products or services offered by your business will be available to the public. Great way to get some free advertising! In your company page you can start a topic of conversation, which can help you engage with those who ‘follow’ your company after all social networking is all about engaging! On a company page, as with your own personal profile, LinkedIn will assign you a URL. This can be customised and your name can be added, helping your Google traffic ranking and increasing your online identity. From your company page, you can also get Google analytics which can help you identify your followers’ demographics and help you understand who is engaging with your company, at least in LinkedIn.

Yes, there are a lot of options for getting your brand online these days. But, if it’s a professional network, a place to meet and build relationships with potential clients then LinkedIn is a must for your business. It takes just a few minutes to set up and gives you access to a whole new business world. Can you afford to let this opportunity pass you by?

“I was at a cocktail party the other night; I have been looking for new ways to promote my business, so I just walked into the middle of the room and at the top of my lungs shouted ‘Buy my Products”

Needless to say this is not something anyone would advice or do. Cocktail parties are not a place for the ‘hard sell’ approach. Instead, they give people a chance to talk, create relationships, network with each other. I don’t think anybody argues how beneficial events like cocktail parties can be for your business. Well according to David Meerman Scott author of ‘The New Rules of Marketing and PR’ social media social media should be treated like a cocktail party. What does that mean? Well don’t for the ‘hard sell’ approach. Instead, build your relationship, network with people and engage your ‘followers’

According to Amas.ie, 47% of Irish adults have Facebook accounts, that’s over 2 million potential customers waiting to be engaged. But simply setting up an account is not enough. Just like showing up at a cocktail party is not enough. You can’t just sit in the corner and watch people talk. Be in the centre of the crowd, be seen and be heard.

I’m not suggesting you bombard people with Facebook updates. Just commit to it. If somebody follows you then you need to make sure they don’t forget your brand. Take the Cork Independent as an example. Every morning then update their status on Facebook and Tweet (the two can be linked easily so you only have to do it via one of them) ‘Good Morning Cork!’ Simple, effective and friendly. It’s no wonder they have over 15,000 Facebook ‘likes’. It’s easy to over think social media, to over think status updates.  But simply saying ‘hello’ to people can have such a positive impact on your brand and increase transparency.

But of course social media isn’t without its flaws. I mean how to do monitor? How do you control? There are so many different platforms out there, so many options and so many people. How can one small business possibly cope with it all? Thankfully, there are so tons of social media monitoring tools available. One example is Social Mention Social mention is a web based tool that allows you to track your brand across user-generated content. All you have to do is put some keywords into the search bar and watch as the results appear. This is just one tool; there are 100s of others, free quick and useful if you want to see what people are saying about you.

Social Media is everywhere, and it’s not going away anytime soon. So it’s now or never to join the cocktail party. Have some fun with it. Don’t think of social media as something you have to do, think of it as a cocktail party with over 2 million guests who are just waiting to talk to you.

Do you think women in business are serious? How well do you network with women? Do you do much business with them? Research done last year showed that Irish women are now the main spenders in almost all areas of the Irish economy. Irish women are responsible for 58% of all purchasing decisions and influence 89% of consumer spending. Have a look around you are you spending time networking with members of the opposite sex? If you are not you could be losing out!

There is a great new book out by Dr. Ivan Misner, Hazel Walker and Frank De Raffele called Business Networking and Sex (Not what you think) and it has some fantastic recommendations for us on how to network with the opposite sex!

One of the main findings in the book was that men and women have a different focus when building relationships, lots of books have been written about this, nothing new there! Men are from Mars and women are from Venus comes to mind, what the authors discovered in Business Networking and Sex was that in terms of networking we were not exactly from different planets rather than same planet, same country but maybe in Irish terms – different counties! Any All Ireland match will tell you that being from a different county matters!! When networking, there are some subtle (and not so subtle) differences between how men and women operate. Having an insight into the differences and being able to respond to make someone from the opposite sex more comfortable pays dividends!!

The research for the book was completed across every continent with over 12,000 survey responses and they found that women build deeper relationships with people than men do. Also they focus on the relationship first and then the business, where as men tend to focus on the business first and then the relationship!

What does this really mean and how does it play out in our everyday conversations? Men….. think about the last time that you thought a woman was not serious about her own business because she was talking to you about her children or personal relationships. She is just socialising rather than building her business. Women……. think about the last time that you were talking to a man and you thought “he’s really hard sell,” or “he’s trying too hard to impress me”. We just build relationships in a different way, men tend to cut to the chase, what is the business opportunity here, how can we work together, this leads to lots of banter about accomplishments and unique selling points. Women tend to focus holistically on the person. How do I develop a relationship with them, the problem with this is… you may stay at that stage, you do not ask for the business or pursue the business proposition as early as you could.

Some advice on how to make your Business Networking more profitable with the opposite sex:

• Men: Speak to relate not just impress
• Women: Ask for what you want at the appropriate time

More fun facts from Business Networking and Sex to come over the next few weeks, we would love to hear your stories about how you find networking with the opposite sex!

Research carried out by iReach exclusively for the “Purse Power” event in Dublin in 2011

How do you engage people at an event? How to people remember you rather than your competitor or other people at an event.

There are a few easy ways to engage people in conversation and to be memorable and they all involve a little thought and preparation.

The easiest way to start to engaging people is to ask open ended questions, prepare four or five questions which you can use depending on the situation that you can engage people in conversation. Most people are reciprocal and therefore will ask you back the same question that you asked them. So let’s say you asked them “how did you get into that business?” when they are finished telling you their story about how they got involved in their business they will often ask “what about you”? or a similar question. Now this is where your preparation comes in! Any question you ever ask at a networking event or in a networking situation, make sure you have a good answer to the same question.

I am not saying to make up stuff or answer someone in a robotic fashion, completely the opposite, be prepared! Then you don’t have to think on your feet, you have already thought about your answer so that you sound more confident and engaging. Also if you have spent some time preparing short engaging answers to the questions you ask, you can focus completely on what someone else is saying as you are not formulating an answer to the question at the same time they are talking.

After questions, stories are the easiest way to engage someone. Ireland had “seanchaí” years ago, they are people who are traditional Irish storytellers, and they passed on stories through visiting towns and villages throughout rural Ireland. Nowadays we have lots of books, blogs, TV programmes etc however the medium, we still love a good story, and they engage us like nothing else.

This is how you can be very clever in how you engage people, you have your own stories, how you got to where you are, what you love about what you do, how you are better, how you help clients…. The stories are endless, it’s how you tell them that matters! Spending some time preparing stories and sharing them with a safe audience will pay dividends when you are engaging people at a networking event later. What works? What doesn’t? Does it have a beginning, middle and end? Is it flowing but concise!

The more confident you are telling your stories and the more focused you are on other people’s stories, the more memorable and engaging you will be.

How did someone engage you at the last event you attended?