Get a fax number - without the fax machine

independent contractor resources
Join Us About Us Sponsors Help
 Unit of 1 Become a member
Search      Member Directory  |  Small Biz Articles  |  Toolbox

Main Menu

Home
Members
Your Account
Member Directory
Submit Article
Small Biz Articles
Customer Service
Finance
Getting Started
Home Based Biz
Law and Taxes
Leadership
Lessons Learned
Marketing
Public Relations
Sales
Technology
Toolbox
Women in Business
Toolbox
Recommended Reading
Downloads
Search
Web Links
Misc
Community
Events
Feedback
Forums
Reviews
Newsletter Newly added - let us know what you think
Surveys
Tell a Friend

Who's Online

Welcome, Anonymous
User ID
Password
(Register)
Newest Member:
Latest: czartery

People Online:
Visitors: 5
Members: 0
Total: 5

10 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Transition From Executive to Entrepreneur

Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 @ 12:00 AM EDT

kubica writes "As the recession continues to loom and as unemployment rises, we have seen an increased interest in executives wanting to start their own businesses. They want to transition from executive to entrepreneur.


You may be interested in becoming an entrepreneur because you lost your job, or because you have a great idea, or because you cannot find a job you are interested in.

Regardless of the reason, however, you will find there is more information available today concerning starting a business than the average human being can consume in a lifetime. Standard advice includes:

* Prepare a solid business plan
* Have cash for at least six months
* Work with a good accountant and attorney
* Understand your market
* Know your competition
* Have a marketable product or service

This is good advice indeed. But in our experience, business startup success or failure involves more than adhering to these maxims. Here are the things you need to pay attention to in order to avoid sabotaging your business success.

10 Mistakes That Will Hurt Your Chances of Becoming a Successful Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur Mistake #1: Letting fear immobilize you. We believe the number 1 issue that affects the success of a new business is fear of failure, fear of success, fear of criticism, fear of feeling unappreciated and fear of thinking no one will like your product, your service or you. Understand that fear can immobilize you. Learn to recognize it and deal with it.

Entrepreneur Mistake #2: Failure to develop real relationships. Nothing happens until a relationship is formed. No meeting, no sales opportunity, no business. Take the time to build a relationship, and then you are ready to sell.

Entrepreneur Mistake #3: Failure to respond quickly. The quicker you respond, the more responsive you appear. E-mails not returned in days, voice messages ignored, and proposals or sales agreements delayed show that you don't care about your prospect's business. Forget the absurd advice that a quick response makes you look eager or desperate for the business. It makes you look - responsive.

Entrepreneur Mistake #4: Becoming a pusher. Nobody likes a pusher. So when your buyer says "yes" - stop selling. And don't up-sell, which is getting the buyer to buy more than they need. It's great for short-term profits and terrible for a long-term relationship.

Entrepreneur Mistake #5: Quitting at no. Nobody likes rejection, but sometimes we see it when it's not there. No is often an initial response to someone the buyer doesn't know, not a conclusion. Or, it can come from a gatekeeper whose job it is to say no.

Entrepreneur Mistake #6: Getting stuck in perfection. There is no such thing as the perfect proposal, the perfect letter and the perfect response. Good is often good enough unless you are dealing with life and death situations, which most of us are not. The extra 20 percent you put into your product, service, response is neither recognized nor appreciated by the recipient. But the fact that it took you too long to respond is recognized and not in a good way.

Entrepreneur Mistake #7: Wearing your personal beliefs on your sleeve. No one cares about your opinions when you are in a sales situation. Your political, social, sports beliefs should stay with you.

Entrepreneur Mistake #8: Lack of focus. When you are not focused on your employees, clients and prospects it looks like you are not interested or that you are overwhelmed. When there is a lack of focus in your organization, it looks like a version of the fad of the month which quickly blows morale as staff struggles to juggle changing priorities and new initiatives.

Entrepreneur Mistake #9: No executive presence. Executive presence is not about just looking the part. Executive presence is about being the part. It's about managing your image thoughtfully and not artificially. Like it or not, tired, overweight, out of shape and sloppy people who aren't aware of current events and haven't read a book since high school or college present a very different image than people who take care of themselves and are intellectually curious.

Entrepreneur Mistake #10: Not showing gratitude. Becoming a success in your business never happens by yourself. Along the way there are people who share their advice, help you through the tough times, perhaps give you an introduction. Don't forget them when you become successful. Gratitude has a return.

These are very difficult economic times. Starting a new business can be exhilarating and very rewarding - personally and professionally. Yes you need a solid business plan, financing and a marketable product or service with a strong and compelling value proposition. But you need more. And, you need to start eliminating sabotaging behaviors that will kill your transition from executive to entrepreneur right now.

Management Consultants and Business Performance Improvement Specialists Tony Kubica and Sara Laforest have 50+ years of combined experience in helping budding entrepreneurs accelerate their business growth in record times. Now, they unveil the common, subtle and self-destructive actions that will hurt your business performance. Get their free special report: "Self-Sabotage in Business" now: http://www.kubicalaforestconsulting.com/resources.php "
Getting Started
Getting Started

Permalink | Article submittted by kubica |
"10 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Transition From Executive to Entrepreneur" | Login/Create an Account | 4 comments | Search Discussion
The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.

You are still an Anonymous user. To comment on this article, please register - it's free.

Re: 10 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Transition From Executive to Entrepreneur (Score: 1)
by jonismith on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 @ 12:38 AM EST
(User Info | Send a Message)
This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks for sharing this great article! That is very interesting Smile I love reading and I am always searching for informative information like this jobs in pakistan [www.youpkonline.com]



UGG classic short (Score: 1)
by uggcardy (uggcardy) on Friday, January 13, 2012 @ 06:10 AM EST
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.uggoutletsalestore.com/
And not only UGG classic short these minute objects but the oceans, the mountains, the clouds, the stars, the rising and the setting sun—all overflow with beauty. This beauty is so precious, and so congenial to UGG short boots black tenderest and noblest feelings, that it is painful to think of the multitude of people living in the midst of it and yet remaining almost blind to it.All persons should seek to mini UGG Boots become acquainted with the beauty in nature. There is not a worm we tread upon, nor a leaf that dances merrily as it falls before the autumn winds, but calls for our study and UGG 5815 boots admiration. The power to appreciate beauty not merely increases our sources of happiness - it enlarges our moral nature, too. Beauty calms our restlessness and dispels our cares. Go UGG tall purple into the fields or the woods, spend a summer day by the sea or the mountains, and all your little perplexities and anxieties will vanish. Listen to UGG cardy boots chestnut sweet music, and your foolish fears and petty jealousies will pass away. The beauty of the world helps us to seek and find the beauty of UGG classic cardy Boots goodness.A child alive today will die tomorrow. A baby that had the potential to be the next Einstein will die from complication is at UGG boots bailey button black birth. The circumstances of life are not set in stone. We are not all meant to live life through to old age. We’ve grown to UGG bailey boots perceive life3 as a full cycle with a certain number of years in between. If all of those years aren’t lived out, it’s a tragedy. A tragedy UGG clearance sale because a human’s potential was never realized.A tragedy because a spark was snuffed out before it ever became a flame.By virtue of inhabiting a body we accept these risks. We discount UGG boots expose our mortal flesh to the laws of the physical environment around us. The trade off isn’t so bad when you think about it. The problem comes when we construct mortal fantasies of what UGG boots clearance life should be like. When life doesn’t conform to our fantasy we grow upset, frustrated, or depressed.We are alive; let us live. We have the ability to experience; let us experience. We have UGG bailey boots the ability to learn; let us learn. He merely lived, observed life and went away. The second enemy we face is indecision. Indecision is UGG classic cardy the thief of opportunity and enterprise. It will steal your chances for a better future.Take a sword to this UGG classic tall enemy. Lwz



louis vuitton outlet (Score: 1)
by zxj1234 on Tuesday, February 14, 2012 @ 08:17 PM EST
(User Info | Send a Message)
No one is more aware than I am of the political consequences of the action I have taken. louis vuitton discount [www.designerbagfactory.com] is tempting to take the easy political path, to blame this war on previous administrations, and to bring all of our louis vuitton outlet [www.designerbagfactory.com] immediately -- regardless of the consequences, even though that would mean defeat for the United States; to desert 18 million South Vietnamese people who have put their trust in coach handbags [www.designerbagfactory.com]; to expose them to the same slaughter and savagery which the leaders of North Vietnam inflicted on hundreds of thousands of North Vietnamese who chose coach outlet online [www.designerbagfactory.com] when the Communists took over North Vietnam in 1954. I would rather be a one-term president and do what I believe was right than to be a two-term President at the cost of seeing chanel bags store [www.designerbagfactory.com] become a second-rate power and to see this nation accept the first defeat in its proud 190-year history. discounted chanel bags [www.designerbagfactory.com] realize in this war there are honest, deep differences in this country about whether we should have become involved; that there are differences to how juicy couture bags [www.designerbagfactory.com] should have been conducted. Tonight, I depart from that precedent. What I ask is far more important. I ask for your support for our brave juicy couture outlet [www.designerbagfactory.com] fighting tonight halfway around the world, not for territory, not for glory, but so that their younger brothers and their sons and your sons can have a chance to grow up in gucci handbags outlet [www.designerbagfactory.com], and freedom, and justice. The answer of the enemy has been intransigence at the conference table, belligerence at Hanoi, massive military aggression in Laos and Cambodia and burberry bags for sale [www.designerbagfactory.com] attacks in South Vietnam designed to increase american casualties. This attitude has become intolerable. We take burberry wallets outlet [www.designerbagfactory.com] not for the purpose of expanding the war into Cambodia, but for the purpose of ending the war in Vietnam.zxj



Re: 10 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Transition From Executive to Entrepreneur (Score: 1)
by rickstr on Friday, February 17, 2012 @ 04:03 AM EST
(User Info | Send a Message)
Good advice. I would also say that indecision kills any good initiative. It correlates with fear, but it's a little different. Here vigorous mixture of fear and laziness, I would say. Best regards, RcSt classifieds [claz.org] craigslist search [claz.org] classified ads [claz.org]


 

Related Links

· More about Getting Started
· News by amichalek


Most read story about Getting Started:
Eight Mistakes to Avoid When Naming a New Business


Article Rating

Average Score: 0
Votes: 0

Please take a second and vote for this article:

Excellent
Very Good
Good
Regular
Bad


Options


 Printer Friendly Printer Friendly

 Send to a Colleague Send to a Colleague


All logos and trademarks in this site are property of their respective owner.
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest Copyright 2001-2005 Topular, LLC d/b/a/ Unit of 1.
: Unit of 1 Article Archive : Amazon eStore
PHP-Nuke Copyright © 2004 by Francisco Burzi. This is free software, and you may redistribute it under the GPL. PHP-Nuke comes with absolutely no warranty, for details, see the license.